More than 2,300 people obeyed the classroom chalk board message and "heard Josh" last night in Eisenhower Auditorium.

Josh McDowell, a born-again Christian author and speaker, energetically paced the stage relating his "Skeptic's Quest" to become a Christian as he elicited laughter from the crowd with college and political jokes.

While out to dispute Christianity and Jesus Christ's authenticity, he said he was overcome by the intellectual and historical facts supporting Christianity.

McDowell cited Christ's fulfillment of the 330 prophecies in the Old Testament as conclusive proof and said the probability of an individual to fulfill only eight prophecies is a one in a 10 quadrillion chance.

Josh's audience boasts an equally impressive figure with more than 800 million university students in 70 countries at more than 700 campuses, said Josh's Manager, Dwayne Zook.

Concluding his speech, McDowell called everyone to join in a prayer to thank Jesus for dying for them, ask for forgiveness, and place trust in God and write down their names and addresses to receive booklets.

Afterwards, the crowd had a large selection to choose from of McDowell's books, tapes and T-shirts proclaiming, "I'm not doing it" and "I make life long decisions with my head, not my hormones" advocating virginity. All royalties are given away, McDowell said.

As students bought the merchandise, many said they enjoyed the speech but were not skeptical to begin with.

"We were all firm in our beliefs; we loved it but we were biased," said University graduate Laurie Cooper, 207 Waring Ave., State College.

McDowell urged students to announce his "Maximum Sex" speech in their classes today. His second speech will be at 8 tonight in Eisenhower Auditorium and is sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ.