“Thou needst not make sense, but thou shalt be civil,” is the main rule abided by at the Science, Religion and Lunch seminars.

The seminars are an informal presentation followed by a discussion between willing participants.

A different speaker is featured every week, with topics varying week by week. The speaker is allotted 40 minutes of presentation time, followed by 20 minutes of open and mostly unguided discussion among the attendees.

Tuesday’s Science, Religion and Lunch Seminar focused on the topic of “Conditional vs. Innate Immortality: What the Bible Teaches about the Soul, Death and Hell.”

Bob Pickle of Halstad, Minnesota, is a Seventh Day Adventist pastor who read quotes from the Bible as well as included personal anecdotes that helped represent his beliefs.

There are regulars that attend all of the weekly meetings and have done so for years, but there are also drop-ins and curious newcomers in attendance at any given weekly seminar.

Ken Koehler, a West Fargo resident, said, “Regarding this (seminar), this is the science and religion seminar, and it dealt with the religious aspect of the forum. (It is) interesting, for consideration of various viewpoints that are out there. It provides an opportunity to exchange points of view and discuss.”

Darrel Lindensmith, a member of the NDSU intelligent design fellowship and also an adventist pastor, said “I come here often just to give feedback, because sometimes there are misconceptions about faith, and about Christianity, that I like to give some input to in this forum, and I come here because I learn a lot too about what other people think.”

“It’s an iron sharpens iron type view, so I come for mutual edification and learning,” Lindensmith continued “I enjoy (discussion) because it’s very open-ended. I mean everybody has their little agendas and presuppositions, but everybody gets a chance to say what they want to say and be respectful.”

Pickle said the event was his third in three years.

The next meeting will occur at 12:00 p.m. Tuesday in Memorial Union’s Badlands Room. The event will be led by Lydia Tackett, an assistant professor of geology, who will be discussing volcanoes and bacterial waste, which has led Earth to modern day life.

These seminars are sponsored by NDSU’s College of Science and Mathematics; College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; NDSU Freethinkers and by the Red River Freethinkers.

The events are free and open to the public.