New essays that we plan to add to our
web site in future months and years

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Status:

As of 2013-SEP-03, we had over 6,200 files essays and menus online. But we estimate that we need at least another 2,000 essays to fully present:

	Descriptions of the major religions found in North America, and
	Descriptions of the controversial social topics with a religious, spiritual or moral aspect.

Over the next year we hope to work on many of the topics listed below.

Planned major projects:

	Polygamy: We suspect that this may become the next "hot" topic in North American society. There is a case before the Canadin courts in British Columbia, BC to determine the constitutionality of the existing federal law against polygamy. In Canada federal law governs marriage across the entire country. This differs from the 51 sets of laws in the District of Columbia and the 50 states in the U.S. We have a menu on polygamy which is linked to a series of essays on patriarchal-structured plural marriages within the Mormon movement. We hope to add other essays describing egalitarian plural marriages.
	Atonement: This is regarded by many theologians as the central tenet of the Christian faith. The atonement involves the healing of the gulf between God and humanity as a result of the life -- an particularly the death -- of Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ). Different wings of Christianity teach different rationales about the atonement. There have been many changes in teaching down through the years. We have covered to date the major historical teachings on this topic, but need to enlarge this section to include new proposed explanations for the atonement that are less violent and that are based more on the life of Jesus than on his his torture-execution.
	Genocide: 9/11 brought holy war to the shores of North America. But holy war and genocide are ancient traditions. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) describes three major genocides and one small-scale genocide: The extermination of almost the entire human race in the time of Noah, The death of every first-born human in Egypt, The genocide of the Canaanites, and The near destruction of the Tribe of Benjamin. The book of Revelation of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament), literally interpreted, predicts a massive genocide for our future which involves in excess of two billion deaths -- one third of the human race. In a series of essays, we will try to compare and contrast these mass murders with the injunction by Jesus to love one's enemies and overcome evil with good.
	Afterlife: An enhancement of our section on life after death, to include in depth essays on: Various beliefs including Universalism, annihilation, Heaven, eternal torture in Hell, etc. How a loving, kind God can create Hell.
	Christianity: A detailed treatment of the Jewish Christians. They were centered in Jerusalem and were the only Christian movement between the time that Jesus was executed (circa 30 CE) and the arrival of Paul in Judea (circa 38 CE). They were led by James, the brother of Jesus. Jesus' disciples and dedicated followers were part of the movement. Their beliefs about Jesus, his teaching, God, etc. were probably quite accurate because they knew Jesus very well. They differed from the beliefs promoted by Paul which eventually became the dominant force within Christianity.   The status and role of Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ). How he was perceived by Christians and Muslims throughout history as: A deity; a member of the Trinity, One of the greatest of the prophets, A son of God selected by God at the time of his baptism, As a lunatic, A liar, A non-existent person, A prophet falsely proclaiming God's rule in his near future, A magician, A Greek cynic philosopher, A person proclaiming the end of the world, A person about which we know very little, etc. Essays on additional faith groups within the European Free-Church Family including Brethren, Mennonites, and Shakers.
	Interfaith: A series of essays comparing various faith groups' beliefs on who will attain heaven and similar topics. We plan to compare various first century Christian movements, various present-day denominations, other religions, etc.
	"Stop the bloodshed" We have dozens of ideas scattered through our web site that discuss ways of promoting religious tolerance, applying the Golden Rules, ending religiously-based oppression, etc. We plan to consolidate these ideas into a single essay or group of essays.

Planned minor projects:

These are the new essays that we plan for our web site. Of course, plans are often overtaken by events in the real world which necessitate the creation of essays on totally new topics.

We have listed the topics them in alphabetic order, not necessarily in the order in which that we expect to write them.

	Abortion: Information about the beliefs of non-Christian religions about abortion.
	Anti-semitism: We plan to attach essays which describe anti-semitism in the Bible and in modern-day cultures to our menu on this topic.
	Atheism: Discussion of various books in which Atheists attack religion. Rebuttals by Christians of these books
	Buddhism: We need to prepare essays on some of the Buddhist traditions that we have not yet covered. Also needed are: Essays on supernatural beings in Buddhism, like ghosts, and An analysis of the book "Buddhism without beliefs"
	Christianity: This is a big topic, because about 75% of North Americans follow this religion: The Antichrist: his identity. The Prosperity Gospel movement. Christian Zionism Bible prophecies: Several Fundamentalist Christian sources teach that those biblical prophecies which do not relate to our future have occurred precisely as predicted. Some skeptics and religious liberals write that no true biblical prophecy has ever happened as predicted. We hope to explain these mutually exclusive belief systems in a series of essays. We have three essays written on this topic to date, and plan to write many more. The Bible and archaeology: Again, there are conflicting beliefs among intelligent, well educated people. Several Fundamentalist Christian sources teach that no archaeological finding has ever refuted any statement in the Bible. However, there are many archaeologists working in Israel and Palestine who have adopted "minimalist" beliefs -- that biblical heroes prior to David and Solomon did not exist, that there was no captivity in Egypt, no Exodus, no United Kingdom, etc. We have an introductory essay on this topic, but plan to expand it into an entire section of our web site. How one becomes a Christian.
	The founding fathers of America: Some say that they were staunch Christians. Others say that they were mostly Deists who worshiped a God who was as different from the Trinity as is Allah -- God as perceived by Muslims. Some describe them as Atheists. The truth is out there.
	Freemasonry: A history.
	God: We plan to create a section in our web site that deals with different concepts that people have about God. It will be based on a new book by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader titled "America's Four Gods." It will be linked to existing essays that deal with Atheism, Agnosticism, Deism, Humanism, etc. But we will prepare more detailed essays which describe Theism, Pantheism, Panentheism, and other visions of deity.
	Hinduism: A discussion of the historical source of the caste system in India
	Homosexuality: Families: How parents react when a child comes out of the closet Courts: Are judges becoming too activist? Parenting: There seems to be many conflicting claims about the effectiveness of parenting by same-sex couples. Studies that have reached opposite conclusions are being quoted.
	Inerrancy of the Bible: We have received a list of 19 apparent inconsistencies in the Bible and a challenge to show that all of them can be harmonized in such a way that biblical inerrancy is still a valid belief. We plan to try. We note a lot of emphasis on discrepancies between the Jesus' genealogy as defined in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke as proving biblical errancy. We plan to study this as well.
	Islam: Our essays on Islam emphasize the peaceful, spiritual aspects of the religion. But, as in all religions, there is also a dark side. In particular, we want to deal with the teachings of an 18th century Muslim reformer, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. His teachings have been hijacked and altered by radical, violent and intolerant Muslim fundamentalists to justify terrorism.
	Jesus: Josh McDowell, and others, have presented non-Christians with a trilemma: that Jesus must have been either a liar, a lunatic or Lord. We hope to describe these options and search for additional options.
	The Kabbalah: We have started to study this topic many times; however, our minds rebel each time.
	Nature: Write an essay comparing conclusions about nature by conservative Protestants with beliefs of scientists. This would include such diverse topics as origins of species, origins and spread of languages, the great flood, indwelling demonic spirits, the nature of sexual orientation, the cause of natural disasters, etc.
	Occult: Augment our essay on the Ouija board to add information on the psychic circle board.
	Original sin: The concept that all humans, including those in successive generations, have been adversely affected by an event in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve allegedly ate a forbidden fruit.
	Origins: Age of the earth: Describe alleged problems that creation scientists have found with radio carbon dating, specifically C-14 and U-238.
	Prophecy: Predictions of the future based on studies of the Great Pyramid
	Rastafari. They follow a religion in which Haile Selassie is viewed as God. It started in Jamaica during the 1930's.
	Religion in the U.S.: The Pew Forum periodically publishes the results of surveys of religious beliefs among American adults which contains some fascinating information.
	Shamanism.
	Tolerance: Should one be tolerant of intolerant groups?
	Violence: The problem of religiously-inspired violence which seems to plague organized religions -- particularly monotheistic faiths. It takes various forms from physical attacks to murder to mass murder to genocide.

Originally written: 2004-JUN-08
Latest update: 2013-SEP-03
Author: B.A. Robinson

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