UCCI to Host Distinguished Lecture:

The Case for God – An Examination of the Arguments

for the Existence of a Deity

The University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI) is hosting a lecture by a visiting UK university professor that will make a case for the existence of God.

The free lecture, slated for Thursday, June 15, 2017, at 6:00 p.m. at the Sir Vassel Johnson Hall at the UCCI campus, is open to the public.

Titled The Case for God – An Examination of the Arguments for the Existence of a Deity, the discourse, part of UCCI’s Distinguished Lecture Series, will be presented by Dr. Alistair Donald of Heriot-Watt University, UK. Heriot-Watt specializes in science and technology.

In the past, lectures were given by several distinguished persons, including Dr. The Honourable Ralph Everard Gonsalves, fourth Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Professor Trevor Munroe, one of the Caribbean’s leading scholars. Topics have varied from politics to culture, to academia to corruption, among others, and have whetted the Cayman public’s appetite for more. UCCI believes the pending Distinguished Lecture that is theology based will provide further interest among those who reside in Cayman’s strong Christian society. In this upcoming lecture, Environmentalist and Scholar Donald will examine the arguments for the existence of God.

“There are few questions as important, and that have engaged the human mind – Christian and non-Christian alike – as that of the existence of a deity,” said Dr. Livingston Smith, Acting Dean of Academic Affairs at UCCI and who is chairing the planning committee for this Distinguished Lecture.

“With the rise of science and certain modes of philosophical reasoning, there are those who argue that God does not exist,” Dr. Smith said, adding: “Yet there are others, equally engaging, who pose the view that the arguments in favour of God’s existence are strong and immutable.”

Dr Alistair Donald is Chaplain of Heriot-Watt University, a science and technical institution based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and home to Edinburgh Business School. He holds a PhD in environmental science and worked in that field in different parts of the UK before being ordained to the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) ministry. Following some years in parish ministry, he was appointed to his current chaplaincy post in 2009.

Dr. Donald has spoken widely on the relationship between science, theology, and philosophy in a variety of university and church contexts, making this both an academic and theological discussion well worth hearing. He has spoken on this topic throughout the UK as well as Europe and Australia.

The UCCI community is pleased to welcome Dr. Donald to the shores of the Cayman Islands and believes he will provide much fodder for consideration and for academic discourse. UCCI has been working with leader of the Cayman Islands Ministers Association, Reverend Torrance Bobb, Associate Pastor Mike Irby of Cayman Islands Baptist Church, among others, to prepare for this Lecture.

UCCI’s Dr. Livingston Smith said such a lecture can only contribute to Cayman’s growth and development, on several levels and added: “Such a theological discussion is timely and appropriate and I hope that the Cayman population will come out in their numbers to be part of this intellectual discourse and interrogation of a deity’s existence.”

The Distinguished Lecture is open to the public. Persons are encouraged to go online to register at https://tinyurl.com/DLSAlistairDonald