Who are our web site's authors,
& what are their credentials?
Sponsored link.
Our site authors are identified in the copyright notice which is near the
bottom of almost all essays.
Almost all of the over 4,015 essays and menus on this web site
(by 2007-OCT) were written by
our main author, and coordinator 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 group leader. Technical writing formed a major part of
his work assignment.
Bruce was born into a Baptist family in 1936 in Leaside, which at the
time was a suburb of Toronto, ON, Canada. 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 listing and section on the
environment.
Many visitors to our web site question our authors' theological credentials. We
explain that none of our staff have theological degrees. We feel that a formal
theological degree would be counter-productive in our work. 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
which
others teach on topics as varied as 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 able to be 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 follows the Ethic
of Reciprocity (a.k.a. the Golden Rule). His sexual orientation is
heterosexual. He is married, and has one grown daughter, two adult
step-sons, and two grand daughters.
