Noted atheist Dr. Michael Newdow visited the Focus on the Family campus Wednesday night for a debate on whether God should play a role in society. The debate was co-sponsored by the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, Colo.
Nearly 800 people listened for two hours as Newdow debated Dr. Chris Leland, senior fellow for Christian Worldview Studies at the Focus on the Family Institute. At issue: whether the use of “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and on U.S. currency violates the Constitution.
Newdow, best known for his campaign to remove the phrase “under God” from the Pledge, opened the evening by arguing that the Founding Fathers specifically kept God out of the Constitution.
“There was a huge change in thinking between 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was written, and 1787, when the Constitution was written,” he said. "There’s no mention of God in our Constitution. As a matter of fact, if you look through, there’s statements against government getting involved in religion.”
In response, Leland maintained that while the Founders may have kept God out of the document, in nearly every other area they relied on their Creator to form the nation.
“Michael (Newdow) indicates that the Founders somehow wised up in the years between 1776 and 1787 that they somehow knew better than to invoke the name of God,” he argued. “If indeed the Constitution was meant to be void of God’s mention, then I believe we’d see that sentiment in other documents and statements from all of those authors across all of those years. That isn’t the case, though; the opposite is true.”
The event marked the first time Focus on the Family has hosted an event in conjunction with the Freethinkers, a group that provides support to atheists, agnostics and humanists. Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media relations at Focus, called it a “historic moment for Focus.”
“Although Newdow refused to go anywhere beyond the narrow issue at hand, Dr. Chris Leland spoke often of the inability to consider our system of government without considering the Founders’ faith and God’s sovereignty,” he said. “He (Leland) spoke quite eloquently and winsomely how his own faith gave him a hope and a purpose no document — not even one as great as the Constitution — could possibly provide.”
Leland said he hoped the debate would open a continuing dialogue between Christians and atheists.
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