Events

THE PACIFICA CENTER for PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY

2026-27 Speaker Series: God and Science

Upcoming Events

Student Seminar

Threats to Free Will: Science, Materialism, or Theism?

Speaker: Garrett Pendergraft

Friday, October 16, 2026
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
20th Street Seminar Room

Note: This event is invite only.

Garrett Pendergraft earned a BS in Computer Science at the University of Southern California and enjoyed a (short) career in visual effects before returning to school to study philosophy. He earned an MA from Biola University, an MA from the University of Missouri, and a PhD from the University of California, Riverside. Most of his research focuses on the metaphysics of agency, and he is particularly interested in arguing that we can have free will and be morally responsible, even in the face of various apparent threats to our agency: causal determinism, divine foreknowledge, and situationism in psychology. (For a complete list of publications, please see Garrett’s PhilPapers profile page.) In the classroom, he enjoys experimenting with various teaching methods and strategies, such as mastery learning. He has served in leadership positions in both the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division) and the Society of Christian Philosophers (Mountain-Pacific Region). Most of his spare time is spent hanging out with some combination of his wife and three kids.

SPECIAL EVENT

C.S. LEWIS DINNER featuring  Dr. Joseph Leconte

Hosted by: Pacifica Christian High School – Orange County

Saturday, October 17, 2026
The Nixon Library – Yorba Linda

Note: This event is invite only.

The C.S. Lewis Dinner is hosted by Pacifica Christian High School – Orange County and is the premier annual event celebrating the rich history of the Christian faith while encouraging lives of grace and truth in our human affairs on this side of Heaven—to God’s glory! A truly one-of-a-kind event!

Named after Clive Staples Lewis—one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the 20th century—this enjoyable evening is meant to be experienced in the company of new and old friends over good food and drink. To be held annually, the dinner will include a talk on the life and work of Lewis—or other historical giants of the Christian faith—in hopes of spurring attendees to Christian fidelity and good works. To enhance this rich, multifaceted experience, the evening will also be accompanied by music, art, and conversation. May our fellowship enliven our imaginations towards our co-creative efforts in the joyful renewal of all things! Alleluia!

Joseph Loconte, PhD, Director of the Rivendell Center in New York City, is a Presidential Scholar at New College of Florida and the C.S. Lewis Scholar for Public Life at Grove City College. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at Sagamore Institute, and as a Senior Fellow at Founding Forward and at the Trinity Forum. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918.

Mr. Loconte’s commentary on religion and public life appears in the nation’s leading journals and newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, National Affairs, the New Criterion, National Geographic, Law and Liberty, the National Interest, and National Review. For 10 years he served as a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He was the winner of the 2017 Best Article award from the Tolkien Society for his article How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front.

Mr. Loconte’s other books include: God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West (Lexington Books, 2014); The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt (Thomas Nelson, 2012); The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler’s Gathering Storm (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004); and Seducing the Samaritan: How Government Contracts Are Reshaping Social Services (The Pioneer Institute, 1997).

fireside chat & student seminar

The Message of Design in Biology

Speaker: Dr. Douglas Axe

Friday, March 12, 2027
Location to be announced.
Student seminars are by invite only.

Engineer-turned-molecular-biologist Dr. Douglas Axe has spent his career asking questions that much of the scientific community would rather silence.  In this intimate fireside conversation, Dr. Axe unpacks the central argument of his book Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed — that every human being carries a “design intuition,” the innate sense that tasks requiring knowledge can only be accomplished by someone who has that knowledge.  Drawing on cutting-edge molecular biology, Axe makes the case that the exquisite complexity and “functional coherence” of living things makes accidental invention — Darwinism — fantastically improbable.  This will be an accessible, wide-ranging conversation about science, origins, and what the latest biology is telling us about who — or what — is behind it all.

Douglas Axe holds the Rosa Endowed Chair of Molecular Biology at Biola University, where is also Professor of Computational Biology and faculty advisor to the AI Lab. He is the author of Undeniable—How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed(HarperOne, 2016). After earning his Ph.D. at Caltech, Axe conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Medical Research Council Centre. His work, focusing on protein evolution, has been featured in leading journals like the Journal of Molecular Biology, Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, and Nature.

student seminar

Is There Such a Thing as Artificial Intelligence?

Speaker: Mihretu Guta

Friday, March 24, 2027
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
20th Street Seminar Room

Student seminars are by invite only.

Dr. Mihretu Guta will be making a case against AI in the sense that no artificial intelligence exists in the genuine sense of the term. Our scientific and philosophical understanding of the nature of intelligence is still in its infancy, to say the least. There is zero consensus on what intelligence is. In fact, the so-called 'IQ' is an empty concept. It has no referent. The numerical value often attributed to an IQ measures nothing. Dr. Guta will be arguing that only natural intelligence/consciousness is real. Natural intelligence is complex and multifaceted. It is ultimately grounded in imago dei. This talk raises interesting metaphysical/ontological issues regarding some of the inherent human limitations to bring about artificial intelligence in computer/robotic gadgets. There is a widespread confusion regarding the nature of AI.

Mihretu P. Guta is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology Biola University. Dr. Guta completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Durham University (UK) under the supervision of Professor E.J. Lowe and Professor Sophie Gibb. Guta was a recipient of the merit-based Prestigious Durham Doctoral Studentship Award for three years. While doing his Ph.D., Guta also served as an Academic Tutor in philosophy at Durham University. After completing his Ph.D., he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Durham University within the Durham Emergence Project, which was set up in cooperation between physicists and philosophers and funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Guta’s postdoctoral research focused on the nature of the emergence of the phenomenal consciousness taken from the standpoint of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience, and quantum physics. He also took short-term academic research training at the Rivendell Institute Summer Seminar at Yale University and at the International Philosophy Summer School at Bamberg University in Germany. Guta specializes in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. His other research interest areas include philosophy of religion, philosophy of language/logic, epistemology, ethics, philosophical theology, the philosophy of cognitive neuroscience, and the philosophy of quantum physics.

special event & student seminar

What Does it Mean to Be Human? with Carl Trueman

Speaker: Carl Truman

Friday, May 14, 2027
Time to be announced.
UCLA Campus

The student seminar is by invite only.

Partnering with UCLA’s Augustine Center & Pacifica Christian Orange County, Pacifica will conclude the year’s public programming by welcoming Dr. Carl Trueman for a student seminar and evening lecture at UCLA centered on one of the defining questions of our cultural moment: What does it mean to be human?

Drawing on themes from his recent work, The Desecration of Man, as well as his broader scholarship on identity, culture, and the modern self, Dr. Trueman will examine how contemporary society’s understanding of freedom and identity has shaped our understanding of human dignity and personhood. Students and families will explore his argument that when humanity becomes detached from its identity as created in the image of God, our understanding of meaning, embodiment, and flourishing erodes.

The day will invite students and families to consider how Christian theology offers a compelling vision of human identity—one rooted not in self-creation, but in creation, purpose, relationship, and the restoration of what it means to be fully human.

Carl R. Trueman is an English Christian theologian and ecclesiastical historian. He was Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he held the Paul Woolley Chair of Church History. In 2018, Trueman left Westminster and became a professor at Grove City College in their Department of Biblical and Religious Studies.

Among Trueman’s books are John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man, The Creedal Imperative, Fools Rush in Where Monkeys Fear to Tread: Taking Aim at Everyone, and Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative. In 2020, Trueman published what is probably his most popular and widely read book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Shortly after, he published, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, a condensed version of his previous book. Following this, he published Crisis of Confidence, To Change All Worlds, and The Desecration of Man. He contributes to First Things blogs regularly at Reformation21 and, along with Todd Pruitt, hosts the Mortification of Spin podcast.

Trueman studied at Marling School, Gloucestershire, St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and the University of Aberdeen, and previously taught at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Nottingham.

In 2023, Trueman delivered the thirty-sixth Erasmus Lecture, titled The Desecration of Man, presented by First Things magazine and the Institute on Religion and Public Life. The lecture examined the modern crisis of human identity in light of the Christian understanding of personhood. Trueman explored how contemporary culture’s rejection of divine order and embodiment leads to confusion about human dignity, sexuality, and purpose.

PAST EVENTS

special event 

A Conversation About Western Civilization's Greatest Minds

Speaker: Dr. Peter Kreeft
Hosted by: The Great Conversation, Pacifica Christian High School – Orange County

Thursday, August 20, 2026
4:30 – 6:00 PM
Online lecture.

On August 20th, Dr. Peter Kreeft joined an online gathering hosted by The Great Conversation at Pacifica Christian High School Orange County, in partnership with the Center for Philosophy and Theology at Pacifica Santa Monica and UCLA's Augustine Center, to take up a question as old as the Church itself: what should a Christian make of the great pagan writers? In the spirit of Augustine "plundering the Egyptians" and Aquinas baptizing Aristotle, Dr. Kreeft argued that all truth is God's truth, and that the wisdom of Socrates, Plato, and the classical world offers the Christian real philosophical insight, moral seriousness, and a genuine preparation for the Gospel.

The pagans, he suggested, asked the deepest human questions with a clarity we have too often lost, giving voice to longings that only Christ finally answers. Far from being a danger to faith, their writings can sharpen the mind, cultivate virtue, and awaken the soul to truths that point beyond themselves.

Following the talk, faculty and staff from Pacifica Santa Monica gathered for dinner to continue the conversation, taking up Dr. Kreeft's charge that all truth is God's truth and considering what it means for their own teaching and  life.

Learn about the Pacifica Parent Book Club