Thursday, October 6, 2016

Start the millionth religious blog and win a free toaster!

I think they kick you out of the amateur blogger's union if your first blog post isn't an awkward introduction, so here I go. I'm Mike and welcome to my Concerning Religion blog.  There is no one word to describe my feelings towards religious belief.  Depending on how it's applied it can be fascinating, confusing, awe-inspiring, alarming, insightful, self-contradictory, and dangerous.  It's why I chose to name my blog to reflect the dual meanings of the word concerning.

I am not a believer and haven't been for several decades.  In my day-to-day life offline the topic of religion, including my objections to it, hardly ever plays a role.  That is apart from those times where religion or the religious attempt to affect me (e.g. if politician X wants to pass law Y because of religious passage Z, then I'll be more than happy to explain my problems with Z).  I came from a Roman Catholic upbringing where my family still participates.  My circle of friends is a mixed bag of religious and non-religious, but that rarely is a topic of conversation outside of fanciful late night philosophizing.

I come not to bury religion, nor to praise it. By my nature I'm a puzzle-solver. I like to explore why things are why they are.  My first reaction when an explanation of something is nebulous is to wonder what other nebulous things does such an explanation allow.  Is there a rigor to how one is to understand religion?  You'll see what I mean with specifics as I go along, but for now just know that my focus will mainly be on apologetics (the arguments in favor of religious thought) and how often the reasoning used doesn't have that same rigor that we use in discussing practically any other topic.

I post semi-regularly on the Catholic Answers Forum under the name "Mike from NJ" if you're interested to see whether the points I make are worth coming back here or not.  It's a good forum, with a nice mix of viewpoints, references, and topics.  Not only that, but the people there write in whole sentences!  This truly is an oasis on the internet. :)

So where do I start? I recently picked up a copy of "Hard Sayings" by Catholic apologist Trent Horn. It's there to both counter doubts about certain passages in the Bible made my non-Christians as well as to help Christians assuage fears and provide a defense in case they hear such claims.  It touches upon many of the biblical questions I've asked in the past, so I'm going to go chapter by chapter and hopefully demonstrate that a great deal of defenses made by Trent Horn and other apologists like him lack the basic rigor and sense to defend much of anything.

Until that next post, folks, thanks for stopping by!

2 comments:

  1. Nice idea, Mike. I'll have to call in now and then to see what you've been writing.

    Bradski.

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  2. I'm confusing myself with all my names. I've been known as Wozza by many people for many years (long story). Then Bradski on the ol' forum and thence to Freddy after a millenium length ban. The names have a common root but again, a long story.

    I'll call in now and then...

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