About this web site

Who are our web site's authors,
& what are their credentials?

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Our site authors are identified in the copyright notice which is near the bottom of almost all essays.

Almost all of the over 6,000+ essays and menus on this web site (as of 2012-AUG) 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 and is now part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The family switched to the United Church of Canada shortly thereafter, perhaps because of a conflict within the Baptist church. 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 largely 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 lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons (LGBT) .

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;
• Religious affiliation is Unitarian Universalist (inactive);
• Moral code follows the Ethic of Reciprocity (a.k.a. the Golden Rule);
• Sexual orientation is heterosexual; and
• Marital status is married.

He has one grown daughter, two adult step-sons, and two grand-daughters.

Copyright © 2002 to 2012 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2002-DEC-13
Latest update and review: 2012-AUG-16
Author: B.A. Robinson