In today’s episode, an atheist and a Christian explore the plausibility of miracles. Do miracles actually happen? What kind of evidence supports them? And if they do occur, how should that shape the way we live today?
You’ll hear from Sean McDowell, a professor of apologetics at Biola, and Paul Rinzler, professor emeritus at Cal Poly. In this conversation moderated by Cal Poly professor Todd Long, they explore why miracles are so hard to believe and what’s ultimately at stake if miracles, like the Resurrection, are real.
This forum was held at Cal Poly in May 2025. Thank you to the student planning team for making this event possible.
Whether there are miracles or not tells us about the kind of universe that we live in.
Whether you're a Christian, an atheist, or something else, I assume all of us agree that truth matters and we should try to align our lives with reality. If there are no miracles and we live in a pale blue dot, live a life that reflects that. If there is a God, and he's made us, and there is a supernatural realm, that changes everything.
Do I have the courage to believe something if it costs me something? I ask myself that a lot. And the best way to mitigate this is having certain people in my life that push back on me.
If we lose God, we lose meaning.
Within a Christian framework, because God is good and God is just and humans are made in God's image, it's built into the fabric of the universe that we ought to behave in a way towards the well-being and good of others.
