Steve Dufour wrote:
www.religioustolerance.org
Here is info from the website about who is behind it.....
Almost all of the over 2,480 essays and menus on this web site were
written by our main author, Bruce A Robinson. He is a graduate of
the
University of Toronto, class of 1959, with a BaSc (Bachelor of
Applied
Science) degree in Engineering Physics. He worked for a large
multi-national chemical company for 38 years before taking a
"golden
handshake" and early retirement during a company downsizing. During
his
employment, he functioned as a specialist in the development of
electronic instrumentation, as a computer programmer working in
process
computing, and as a supervisor. Technical writing formed a major
part
of his work assignment.
Bruce was born into a Baptist family in 1936. The family switched
to
the United Church of Canada shortly thereafter. He had been
fascinated
by religion since his early teen years when he experienced a
religious
conversion from the "nominal" Christianity of his childhood to the
Unitarian faith. This interest in spirituality and religion
continued
into adulthood. He was motivated to organize the Ontario
Consultants
on
Religious Tolerance in early 1995, after becoming convinced that
religious intolerance was responsible for much of the hatred, mass
murder and genocide in Bosnia, and in other world hot spots, like
Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Cyprus, Macedonia, Lebanon, Israel,
Palestine, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Nigeria, the
Philippines,
etc.
A small percentage of our essays were written by other individuals
who
have donated their writing to our web site. Most of those essays
are
located in our visitor essay section.
Many visitors to our web site question our authors' theological
credentials. We explain that few if any of our authors have
theological
degrees. We feel that a formal theological degree would be
counter-productive. It would probably tend to bias our authors'
understanding of religious matters in a liberal direction. A Bible
school diploma would also be counter-productive as it would bias us
in
a conservative direction. Either would probably bias our authors in
favor of Christianity and against other faith groups.
Advanced theological training is not needed for our work. We are
not
theologians or religious innovators; we are simply reporters on
religion, spirituality and ethics. We do not create or promote new
religious beliefs. Rather, we explain all of the points of view
that
others teach on abortion access, equal rights for homosexuals,
heaven
and hell, God, Satan, and hundreds of other social and religious
topics. The science/engineering degree and industrial experience of
our
main author has equipped him with the skills that he needs to
report
the religious scene: logical, analytical thinking, and the ability
to
express thoughts clearly.
He is an Agnostic -- a person who has concluded that the existence
or
nonexistence of God cannot be proven at this time. Because he does
not
hold a specific set of theistic beliefs to be true, he is
relatively
objective when describing a range of religious beliefs from Asatru
to
Zoroastrianism, and when describing a range of social conflicts,
from
abortion access to equal rights for homosexuals.
Many visitors to this web site have concluded that because Bruce
has
written many articles on Christianity, or the The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Satanism, or Wicca, or
homosexuality,
or hoax therapeutic techniques that he must be a Christian, Mormon,
Satanist, Wiccan, homosexual or therapist. He is none of these. His
theological beliefs are Agnostic; his (inactive) religious
affiliation
is Unitarian Universalist. His moral code is to follow the Ethic of
Reciprocity (a.k.a. the Golden Rule). His sexual orientation is
heterosexual. He is married, and has one grown daughter and two
adult
step-sons.
Thanks Bob. He sounds like a nice person.
I wrote him an e-mail a while ago to thank him for his fair treatment
of our church, and to correct a few misunderstandings.
.
