On Tuesday September 27th, 2016 two of the nation's leading academics engaged in a debate addressing the most fundamental question of human life: Does God exist? Mortimer Adler says in The Great Ideas (i.e. The Great Books) Syntopicon that more consequences for thought and action follow from affirming or denying God than from answering any other basic question. The late atheist Christopher Hitchens said, prior to his death, that the God question is the most powerful and urgent question confronted by humanity. At Mershon Auditorium on the campus of The Ohio State University, Freed-Hardeman professor of Bible and philosophy Ralph Gilmore dueled Duke University professor of philosophy Alexander Rosenberg on life's most important question. Does the presence of suffering in our world prove that God does not exist? Or might it in fact, prove that He does? In this debate both of these supremely qualified disputants affirm and deny the premise of the strongest argument concerning the subject. We invite you to ask the difficult questions, weigh the evidence, and follow the evidence where it leads.

Get the most out of your debate viewing with your very own copy of the transcript, featuring hi-res images from each slide, painstakingly reproduced and arranged for readability.