When: Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.

Where: Shotel Dubin Auditorium, Penn Hillel | 215 South 39th Street

It’s hard to have good arguments about religion. All too often, we either avoid voicing religious disagreements altogether or end up talking past one another. With this lecture and practical workshop, Leah Libresco, a Yale alumna and Christian convert from atheism, seeks to help foster a culture of rational debate about religion on campus.

The first step in having a good argument is accurately representing the views of your opponent. According to Libresco, in order to have good fights about religion, we need to learn about the religious perspectives we disagree with (or think we disagree with!). Libresco developed a method of argument called an ‘Ideological Turing Test’, by which one is tested to see if one can accurately reflect the views of one’s interlocutor. She’ll be giving a short lecture about why rational argument about religion is important, then leading the audience in an ‘Ideological Turing Test’ and teaching them how to do it themselves.

Leah Libresco is a writer and school systems analyst based in Washington, D.C. A former atheist blogger and writer for the Huffington Post, Ms. Libresco stunned her readers in summer 2012 when she announced that she was converting to Catholicism. Raised in an atheist household on Long Island, she had graduated from Yale University in 2011 with a B.A. in political science.

Hosted by the Collegium Institute Student Association at Penn.