Famous for being able to explain how something (ie. the universe) could come from nothing, American physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss, also known as ‘the Woody Allen of science’, has become a household name in Australia over the last 12 months. Starting with his appearance at the Global Atheist Convention last year, Krauss has been in our country and on our television screens with regularity. He’s perhaps most well-known for his interactions with John Dickson on QandA earlier this year, wherein Dickson famously said “I get all the science, plus Jesus”, a sentiment Krauss was happy to dismiss. This August, he’s back again for a series of ‘conversations’ with William Lane Craig, an American philosopher of religion, hosted by the City Bible Forum.

William Lane Craig has publicly debated a number of atheists, Muslim apologists and even Christians holding beliefs which differ to his own. Controversially, in 2011, Richard Dawkins refused to debate him at the invitation of the Cambridge Debating Union and Oxford Christian Union. However, he’s in Australia later this year at the invitation of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES), and the City Bible Forum leapt at the opportunity to pit him against a well-known atheist.

It’s at the request of Krauss that the three events in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne are not debates, but rather conversations. The City Bible Forum’s Robert Martin says the conversation format should allow for more nuance, describing it as “much less adversarial”.

“It’s a brilliant way of raising questions, unsettling fairly well held ideas. If someone disagrees, you can talk about a particular point,” he says.

Entitled ‘Life, The Universe and Nothing’, the conversations will interact with aspects of Krauss’ book, A Universe from Nothing. The first talk in Brisbane will be around the question: ‘Has Science Buried God’, while the second in Sydney is on ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’ and the last, in Melbourne asks: ‘Is it reasonable to believe there is a God?’.

The City Bible Forum approached a number of leading atheists to join Lane Craig on the stage, before settling on Krauss, which is a good match according to Martin.

“In the end the guy that we’ve got is probably the best of the lot. There’s been a lot of interest overseas, online about the events. In the end we’re very pleased to have two people of high calibre intellect.”

Marketing for the events will take advantage of existing online networks, with the City Bible Forum having already notified a number of atheist, secular and skeptic communities about the conversations. Robert Martin says so far, the majority of ticket purchases have come from these connections.

With the group investing considerable resources in getting the intellectuals together for ‘Life, the Universe and Nothing’, one would expect the City Bible Forum to believe in the public dialogue format as an effective method of evangelism. Martin says while it won’t appeal to everybody, there are some things a conversation like this can achieve which a straight forward Christian talk can’t.

“It’s an easier invitation to explore the big questions than if any Christian thinker were to present by themselves,” he says. “I think it opens up to a larger pool of potential interested people, because the other side is represented. It makes people feel less threatened or intimidated. They’re not going to be hoodwinked into believing—a bait and switch type of event.”

The three events have also been recognised as part of National Science Week, lending them credibility and bringing questions of faith into the public sphere, something Martin firmly believes in.

“Sometimes we think Christian ideas belong in their own domain, but the ideas that Christians have belong in the public sphere and should be in the public sphere.”

Having met with Krauss in person to discuss the events, Martin says he respects the physicist and is looking forward to seeing him interact with Lane Craig come August.

“He’s a very pleasant person; he’s got a good sense of humour. He outlined some of his concerns and we tried to talk about some of those. He came across far less combative and far more willing to have a nice chat than he does sometimes in the public forums.”

The events are running in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne from August 7-16. For more details, see the website: http://lifeuniversenothing.org/