Rod organizes a debate over the existence of God featuring Fred Edwards, an atheist, versus Dr. William Lane Craig:
A retired chemist with forest products company MacMillan Bloedel challenged Fred Edwards, the atheist president of the American Humanist Association, headquartered in New York, and the editor of the anti-Christian magazine “Creation-Evolution”, to debate him at UBC on the creation versus evolution issue in January of 1985. The kindly elderly chemist asked me if Campus Crusade for Christ would organize and publicize the debate on campus, as he was partially paralyzed from a stroke. Fred Edwards was a young, athletic, dynamic communicator. Despite my reservations I agreed to book a UBC lecture hall and promote the debate.
I had heard about Dr. William Lane Craig, a Christian academic with two earned Doctorates in Philosophy and Theology. I asked Dr. Craig if he would travel to Vancouver and debate Fred Edwards on the topic “Secular Humanism versus Evangelical Christianity – Which is the Superior Worldview?”. Fred Edwards agreed to stay a second day to have debates two nights in a row.
Much prayer was invested by students as the back to back debates drew near. It was a relief to see that the elderly Christian chemist did a remarkable job in presenting his case for creation and refuting Fred Edwards’ arguments for evolution in a lively debate before an overflowing audience of UBC students and professors. The following morning our Campus Crusade for Christ UBC student leaders had arranged for Dr. Craig and Fred Edwards to appear on Jack Webster’s province-wide current affairs television talk show on BCTV. The ‘on-air debate’ was scheduled for 10 minutes but at the commercial break Jack Webster said, “The phone lines are full with callers from around the province. Could you stay?” The debate continued another hour. That evening two of the largest lecture halls in UBC’s Woodward Health Science Building were filled to standing room capacity for the debate between Fred Edwards and William Lane Craig. After Dr. Craig’s closing comments, the moderator, who was the President of the UBC Debating Society, looked at Dr. Craig and said, “Wow! Where do I go to get baptized?”
