The Watkins Auditorium was filled Wednesday night with student, faculty and people of Martin to take part in a discussion.

UTM student and Cooper Hall resident assistant, Ousmane Diop organized a panel of representatives to openly discuss a variety of religions.

The panel consisted of Dr. Abdel Fattall (Islam), Nathan Tircuit (Christianity), Sister Mumford (Latter-day Saints), Mike Levy (Judaism) and Carol Dickerson (Christianity). The discussion was led by philosophy professor Dr. Christopher Brown.

A wide range of topics were covered including God, Day of Judgment, the Trinity, the Holy books and religion and science.

The main discussion served to introduce and explain each of the religions. In the limited amount of time, the panelists merely scratched the surface.

Joseph Pierce commented after the program that, in his opinion, “the selection of panelists was decent but the panelists did not represent all of their religious beliefs.”

Ousmane Diop’s intention in creating this program was to facilitate an open discussion between members of different religions.

In his opening remarks, Ousmane told that he hopes “that this dialogue will lead to a positive and rewarding flow of ideas between faiths” and “can help them understand each other and recognize that we live in a multifaith, multicultural society.”

Following the main discussion, people of the audience were able to ask questions to members of the panel. The audience members were eager to ask their questions.

Overall, though religion is a touchy subject, the panelists and audience in general seemed very interested in learning about the wide range of views presented.

“It is a good thing that UTM was able to put on an equalized open discussion on many religions,” stated panelist Nathan Tircuit.

The Inter-religion Dialogue was sponsored by the Office of Housing, Sodexho-Marriott, the Department of Philosophy and the Department of University Relations.