- Shelbi R. Ankiewicz
Local church invites guest speaker to CCU
Guest speaker Michael Guillen is coming to CCU on Oct. 27 to talk about his latest book, “God + Science believing is seeing” and launch a presentation that he has been working on for quite some time.
Guillen is the President and CEO of Spectacular Science Foundation and Productions. For the past two and a half years he has been working on a “show” that was supposed to debut in Denver, Colorado, and Dallas, Texas. Yet, due to COVID-19 concerns, Guillen has not been able to host events in person in those cities. So, the presentation was on hold until a local Conway church invited him and his team to ignite his presentation at CCU.
“It is a 90-minute, multimedia lallapalooza,” Guillen said. “I guarantee you have never in your life attended anything like this, okay? And what’s interesting is that we’re launching it at CCU.”
Guillen attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and math. He then continued his education at Cornell University where he received a master’s in experimental physics, and the equivalent of three Ph.D.’s in math, physics and astronomy.
After attending school, Guillen was a professor at Harvard for many years. During that time, he was also the news science editor for ABC. He created content for Good Morning America, Nightline, The World News Tonight, among other outlets.
Guillen has authored various books with his first one covering topics about math. While at CCU Guillen is going to use his presentation to speak about not only his book but also his journey, which he hopes will inspire students.
His book focuses on three different themes. The first one is about his journey from Atheism to Christianity. Growing up Guillen wanted to be a scientist, so he never thought about religion until many years later.
The second theme in his book is the subject of faith. Guillen said that there are two types of faith. There is faith that means believing in something without evidence, and then there is faith which is looked at as a weakness people used to fall back on. In his book, Guillen breaks down “both sides” of faith.
“Faith actually is the foundation of the entire human experience. Not only of religion, but also of science, physics, of math, astronomy, and for that reason, faith is actually the most, the mightiest power in the universe,” Guillen said.
The last topic in his book is worldviews. He explains how everyone has a worldview and how each one is based on a mathematic belief.
Guillen and his team are ecstatic about visiting CCU.
“My team and I are genuinely excited because this is the launch of a major show and it is the first time we’re doing a live show since everything got locked down because of COVID,” Guillen said. “So, we’re really, really excited about coming to meet students at CCU.”
Lauren Koonce, Associate Director of Scheduling and Space Management at CCU said that although Guillen is presenting at CCU, this is not a university-sponsored event.
“Dr. Michael Guillen was invited to campus by Rise Community Church,” Koonce said. “Rise Community Church is renting Johnson Auditorium through the University for this event through a Contract for Use of Campus Facilities which allows external organizations to utilize campus space.”
Guillen will be presenting at CCU in the Johnson Auditorium. The show will start at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 27. Students can receive a free copy of his book when they bring their CINO cards.
