What is religious truth in Christianity? How do I find it, or rather, who tells me what it is? Can I discover truth in and of myself? What do I hold on to? How do I recognize a truth of faith? Are religious truths a “different kind” of truth? How does theology address the accusation that it constructs its own truth? Together, we will explore these and similar questions.

• Topic: Truth and Religions
  
• Format: Interview Followed by a Public Discussion
  
• Participants:
• • Prof. em. Dr. Dietrich Korsch (University of Marburg)
  • PD Dr. Katharina Opalka (University of Bonn)
  • Dr. Ann-Kathrin Armbruster (University of Bonn)

In this workshop, we will explore various issues related to the teaching of religion, such as: What roles (facilitating, accompanying, or obligatory) do institutions such as religious education play in children’s and adolescents’ search for spiritual and religious truth? How can secular modernity and religions enter into a mutually enlightening relationship in this context?

• Topic: Truth and Religions
  
• Format: Workshop
• Participants: Further information will follow shortly.

How do conceptions of truth gain acceptance? Not even scientific discourse is free from power dynamics—research trends sometimes follow the trail of funding just as much as the “unforced compulsion of the better argument” (Habermas). Ever since Nietzsche and Foucault, at the very latest, there has been a suspicion that claims to knowledge and power are inextricably linked: no conceptions can establish themselves without (sublimated) means of power; once established, they in turn function as (sublimated) means of power. In light of these social and political dimensions of truth-seeking, truths are regarded as constructed in accordance with particular interests—thus providing the motivation for relativisms of various stripes and post-factual resignation. This event aims to explore the philosophical foundations upon which the intertwining of truth/truth-seeking and power might be conceived.

• Topic: Truth and Science
  
• Format: Lecture and Audience Discussion
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Frieder Vogelmann (University College Freiburg)
  • PD Dr. Jens Rometsch (University of Bonn)

It is a positive development that interfaith dialogue has become the norm in many German cities. But does this truly lead to mutual understanding? Representatives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam will discuss the challenges of interfaith understanding on this panel. Why does mutual understanding succeed or fail? What role does the seemingly neutral secular framework play in Germany? What influence do fundamentalist groups within one’s own religion have on the dialogue?

• Topic: Truth and Religions
• Format: Panel Discussion
• Participants:
  • Dr. Mohammed Abdel-Rahem (University of Paderborn)
  • Dr. Markus Adolphs (University of Bonn)
  • Yael Attia (University of Paderborn)
  • Jun.-Prof. Br. Dr. Stefan Walser (University of Bonn)

In this workshop, we will explore the relationship between simplification and complexity, polarization and populism through a participatory activity that includes a performance element. Students will act out social media posts by politicians and statements from party platforms. In a pub-quiz-style interactive activity (with small prizes!), workshop participants will then try to guess which statements go together—that is, which come from the same party—and also match them to the corresponding campaign poster slogan. Afterward, we’ll analyze together the relationship between simplification and populism and what this reveals about political communication today.

• Topic: Truth and Politics
• Format: Workshop 
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Kathrin Hörschelmann (University of Bonn)
  • Prof. Dr. Svenja Kranich (University of Bonn)
  • Students

A central poster session offers early-career researchers, in particular, an excellent opportunity to present their own research, receive valuable feedback, and network across disciplines and fields.

Click here to view the call for posters for the event.

• Topic: Truth and Media, Science, Politics, and Religions
• Format: Presentation and Discussions

Science is free. This is guaranteed by the Constitution. It may and must develop its own research questions and methods for generating new knowledge and new courses of action. On the other hand, it is funded by societal resources, depends on societal acceptance and on mechanisms within the scientific system, and influences social life as well as the competitiveness of the economy through its findings—meaning that political interests also come into play.

What is the actual state of academic freedom in Germany and internationally? Who ultimately decides—through the allocation of funding or through incentive systems, such as those related to publications or career paths—which research questions are investigated? What role do society and politics play in selecting the truths that the sciences are supposed to seek?

• Topic: Truth and Science
• Format: Impulses, Panel, Plenary Discussion
• Participants:
  • Ina Brandes  (Minister of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia)
  • Prof. Dr. Johannes Grave  (Vice President of the German Research Foundation, DFG)
  • Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Michael Hoch (Honorary Doctor of Science, Waseda University; Honorary Doctor of Science, University of St. Andrews; President of the University of Bonn)
  • Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Dr. h.c. Gerd Heusch (Academy of Sciences and Arts)
  • Moderation: Nicola Kuhrt (Table media)

A multimedia event on the PLURIVERSUM.

In an increasingly interconnected world, where diverse spaces of interpretation and self-positioning are becoming more distinct and where experiences of life and survival are articulated in radical plurality, the question of truth no longer arises merely as a question of a single, universal order, but as a question of the relationship between perspective and claim, experience and concept, context and form.

Fernando Costa and Alberto Acosta are collaborating with Grupo Sal and Johannes Keitel to create a multimedia program. They are known for their passionate music, the bringing together of cultures, and decades of championing important, emancipatory voices from the Global South and the Global North.

Special guest of the evening: Arturo Escobar, a leading thinker from Colombia on the concept of the pluriverse.

Anyone seeking certainty in their faith always faces a problem. In pluralistic societies, alongside one’s own religious truth, there are many other interpretations of the world that each claim to be the truth. In this situation, fundamentalism seems to be an appealing option because it offers clear certainties. What exactly is the appeal of fundamentalism? And what other ways are there to advocate for religious claims to truth in pluralistic societies?

• Topic: Truth and Religions
• Format: Lecture and Discussion
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Jürgen Werbick (University of Münster)
  • Moderation: Dr. Markus Adolphs (University of Bonn)

Numbers seem objective—yet they can easily be misleading. On several interactive posters, primarily students demonstrate how statistics help us interpret observations correctly and avoid jumping to conclusions.

Using clear, everyday examples, the posters explore topics such as misleading averages, random fluctuations, skewed comparisons, and the difference between correlation and causation. Why can the same data appear very different depending on how it’s presented? When is a striking result actually convincing? And what information are we missing before we can draw a reliable conclusion from the numbers?

Visitors can explore the posters at their own pace, try out short brainteasers, and discuss the topics with the students and participating researchers. No prior knowledge of statistics is required. The focus is not on calculations, but on the question of how we can use data to reach better and more well-founded judgments.

• Topic: Truth and Science
• Format: Interactive Poster Session with an Opportunity for Open Discussion
• Participants: Students, accompanied by
  • Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin von Gaudecker (University of Bonn)
  • Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Mink (University of Bonn)

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was widespread uncertainty. Scientific findings were preliminary, controversial, and sometimes had to be corrected—and yet decisions had to be made based on them. At the same time, as the situation evolved, a complex landscape emerged featuring sometimes competing “truths,” including those from various disciplines such as virology, epidemiology, the social sciences, psychology, pediatrics, and ethics. The individual findings were weighted very differently.

How does one choose between preliminary “truths” that sometimes point in different directions? How do politics, society, and the media deal with this uncertainty—do they emphasize contrasts to attract attention, or do they proceed cautiously? Can such trade-offs even be presented transparently? And how does one strike a reasonable balance between findings from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities?

• Topic: Truth and Science
• Format: Keynote Presentations, Panel Discussion, Audience Discussion
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Florian Klein (University Hospital of Cologne)
  • Prof. Dr. Michael Bosnjak (University of Trier)
  • Maria Loheide (former Director of Social Policy at Protestant Agency for Diakonie and Development - EWDE)
  • Host: Christina Sartori (freelance journalist and writer for radio, TV and online)

We often encounter science in the form of finished results and seemingly established facts. But how is scientific knowledge actually developed?

Through a series of posters, researchers from various disciplines open up their “workshops of truth.” They demonstrate how an initial question evolves into a research project, how they collect observations and data, select appropriate methods, and verify their results. This also addresses what rarely makes the headlines: uncertainties, contradictory findings, potential biases, wrong turns, and the need to continually and critically reexamine previous findings.

The posters invite visitors to compare different scientific approaches and engage directly with the researchers. How robust is a result? How can you recognize an error? What happens when new findings contradict previous assumptions? And why do even sound scientific answers remain, by definition, provisional?

• Topic: Truth and Science
• Format:  Poster Session with an Opportunity for Open Discussion
• Participants: Researchers from various departments at the University of Bonn (further information will follow shortly)

As a methodologically controlled search for intersubjective insights, modern science has, on the one hand, brought significant progress to humanity. Consider, for example, the enormous increase in average life expectancy or the rapid global rise in the proportion of people attending school. On the other hand, since the Enlightenment, modern sciences—through their quest for truth, the dissemination of their findings, and the technology built upon them—have enabled processes that contribute to global problems and crises. From today’s perspective, these include colonialism, Eurocentrism, racism, social inequality, classism, and global anthropogenic landscape change. In light of the Anthropocene, the question arises as to which aspects of the global environmental crisis were historically shaped by the sciences. On the other hand, the key aspects of the current multifaceted crisis cannot be resolved without the application of modern science. What roles do today’s sciences play in future-oriented solutions and their critiques—for example, regarding climate engineering, tech solutionism, error-tolerant adaptation, the circular economy, and energy policy?

• Topic: Truth and Science
• Format: Short Presentations followed by Audience Discussion
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Xiaomeng Shen (United Nations University, Bonn)
  • Prof. Dr. Jürgen Renn (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft)
  • Prof. Dr. Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni (University of Bayreuth, online participation)
  • Prof. Dr. Nikita Dhawan (Dresden University of Technology, online participation)
  • Moderation: Prof. Dr. Christoph Antweiler and Dr. Jan Linhart (University of Bonn)

We take a look behind the scenes of news production. First, we explain the criteria newsrooms use to select and frame stories. Then, in a simulation exercise, participants take on the roles of reporters and editors-in-chief. They vote in real time to decide which stories make it to a news channel’s homepage and how much they can be sensationalized to attract attention and clicks while remaining as truthful and informative as possible. This allows participants to experience firsthand the tensions between economic interests and clickbait tactics on the one hand, and the journalistic commitment to truth on the other. Finally, we reflect together on what these conflicts mean for our understanding of public debate and what role advertising and media funding play in this context.

If there is very high demand for the session at 1.00 p.m., we reserve the right to offer it again at 5.00 p.m.

• Topic: Truth and Media
• Format: Workshop, Role-Playing
• Participants:
  • Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Mink (University of Bonn)
  • Prof. Dr. Kathrin Hörschelmann (University of Bonn)

The multireligious team from the “Forum for Comparative Theology” and representatives from the Protestant Faculty of Theology in Bonn will guide you to several sites of religious communities in Bonn. We will show how claims to religious truth are expressed at these various sites and facilitate dialogue among them.

The walk begins at 1.00 p.m. in front of the Universitätsclub. At 3.00 p.m., as part of the walk, there will be an official guided tour of the Schlosskirche.

The Schlosskirche can also be visited during the conference at the following times: Further information will follow shortly.

• Topic: Truth and Religions
• Format: Interfaith City Tour and open Schlosskirche 
• Participants:
  • Dr. Markus Adolphs (University of Bonn)
  • Dr. Nasrin Bani Assadi (University of Bonn)
  • PD Dr. Katharina Opalka (University of Bonn)

A study conducted in 68 countries, in which the University of Bonn participated, shows that a majority of the population has a high level of trust in scientists. More than 4 out of 5 respondents want researchers to communicate with the general public. In Germany, trust levels are below average, though they have remained stable over the past few years, according to the Science Barometer. At the same time, more than half of the Germans surveyed want researchers to become more involved in political decision-making processes. Among scientists themselves, there is debate over whether and how they should engage with politics and the public. At the same time, however, science depends on the trust of the public and policymakers.

What factors influence trust in science and scientists? What impact does communicating with the public and policymakers have on scientists and their work? Is there a place for the ivory tower? What happens to the scientific pursuit of truth when the public and policymakers are so closely involved? Is scientific truth itself altered when it must be communicated in a way that everyone can understand?

• Topic: Truth and Science
• Format: Impulses, Panel Discussion, Audience Discussion
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Simone Dohle (University of Bonn)
  • Prof. Dr. Sabine Maasen (University of Hamburg)
  • Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (University of Bonn & Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Museum Koenig)
  • Moderation: Volker Stollorz (Science Media Center Germany gGmbH)

Modern AI generates images, videos, and voices that are virtually indistinguishable from real recordings. In this session, researchers provide insight into how such deepfakes are technically created and how they can be detected using AI. Participants will test their own judgment in a live game using the “Deepfake Total” platform. They will hear or see short examples, vote on whether they believe them to be real, and then learn how a specialized detection AI evaluates the same cases. This allows participants to experience firsthand where humans and algorithms reach their limits, what types of errors occur, and what this means for dealing with supposedly authentic media content.

• Topic: Truth and Media
• Format: Lecture, Interactive Game, Discussion
• Participants: Further information will follow shortly.

„Wahrheit ist ´ne schöne Zier, doch weiter kommt man ohne ihr.“ ("Truth is a fine adornment, but you get further without it.") Does what a proverb once said about modesty now apply to the truth? It seems that in politics worldwide, narratives tailored to one’s own goals are increasingly more important than a reasonable approach to facts. Are you a better politician if you craft clever narratives, assert “alternative facts,” distort history, and simply spread whatever fits your agenda at the moment? What impact does this kind of communication have on people’s everyday understanding of truth and on society’s shared understanding of reality? Which political communication structures promote democracy, and which ones undermine it?

• Topic: Truth and Politics
• Format: Interactive Discussion
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Nicola Gess (University of Bonn)
  • Prof. Dr. Nils Goldschmidt (Weltethos-Institut)
  • Moderation: Further information will follow shortly.

In this session, we will explore how people determine what is true and what is false in today’s media landscape. Among other things, we will examine the phenomenon of retreating into “bubbles” and the tendency for group affiliations, emotions, and personality traits—rather than facts—to determine what people believe to be true. The event consists of two academic presentations—one from a linguistic perspective and one from a psychological perspective—followed by a discussion.

• Topic: Truth and Media
• Format: Presentations followed by a Plenary Discussion
• Participants:
  • Prof. Dr. Sören Stumpf (University ofKassel)
  • Prof. Dr. Roland Imhoff (JGU Mainz)

If there is very high demand for the session at 1.00 p.m., we reserve the right to offer it again at 5.00 p.m.

We take a look behind the scenes of news production. First, we explain the criteria newsrooms use to select and frame stories. Then, in a simulation exercise, participants take on the roles of reporters and editors-in-chief. They vote in real time to decide which stories make it to a news channel’s homepage and how much they can be sensationalized to attract attention and clicks while remaining as truthful and informative as possible. This allows participants to experience firsthand the tensions between economic interests and clickbait tactics on the one hand, and the journalistic commitment to truth on the other. Finally, we reflect together on what these conflicts mean for our understanding of public debate and what role advertising and media funding play in this context.

• Topic: Truth and Media
• Format: Workshop, Role-Playing
• Participants:
  • Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Mink (University of Bonn)
  • Prof. Dr. Kathrin Hörschelmann (University of Bonn)

Through a variety of formats, participants will gain a hands-on understanding of how truth is negotiated in different contexts and what tensions emerge in the process. While internationally renowned figures will offer insights into current developments through lectures, the audience will be actively engaged in moderated discussions and interactive workshops. In addition, a central poster session is scheduled for Friday, October 9, 2026, from 4.30 to 5.30 p.m.

This session offers early-career researchers, in particular, an excellent opportunity to present their own research, receive valuable feedback, and network across disciplines and fields.

Click here to view the Call for Posters for this event.

• Dr. Markus Adolphs (Faculty of Catholic Theology, Systematic Theology)
• Prof. Dr. Christoph Antweiler (Faculty of Arts, Middle Eastern and Asian Studies)
• Dr. Ann-Kathrin Armbruster (Faculty of Protestant Theology, Systematic Theology)
• Prof. Dr. André Beauducel (Faculty of Arts, Psychology)
• Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin von Gaudecker (Faculty of Law and Political Science, Applied Microeconomics)
• Prof. Dr. Kathrin Hörschelmann (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Geography)
• Prof. Dr. Svenja Kranich (Faculty of Arts, English, American Studies, and Celtic Studies)
• Dr. Jan Linhart (Center for Life Ethics)
• Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Mink (Faculty of Law and Political Science, Applied Microeconomics)
• Prof. Dr. Laura Münkler (Law and Political Science, Public Law, and Philosophy of Law)
• PD. Dr. Katharina Opalka (Faculty of Protestant Theology, Dogmatics and Ethics / Systematic Theology and Hermeneutics)
• PD Dr. Jens Rometsch (Faculty of Arts, Philosophy)
• Dr. Björn Schmitz-Luhn (Center for Life Ethics)
• Prof. Dr. Klaus von Stosch (Faculty of Catholic Theology, Systematic Theology)
• Johanna Tix (Office of Strategic Development and Quality Assurance, TRA Management)
• Prof. Dr. Christiane Woopen (Hertz Chair of the TRA Individuals and Societies, Center for Life Ethics) 

The event is supported in particular by the team at the Center for Life Ethics.