Tom Talbott (homepage)
Willamette University
Salem, Oregon 97301

"Awesome" is now an overused cliche, but this picture, taken by the Hubble telescope and showing the actual birth of a star, is truly awe-inspiring. If you don't believe this, then just click on the picture for a full-screen view. But what, you may ask, does such a picture have to do with religion? Well, I doubt that I have ever had a profoundly religious experience while sitting in church, which in earlier years I attended with a fair degree of regularity. Indeed, even in those earlier years, I tended to bide my time in church either formulating arguments against the preacher's proclamation or recoiling from the persistent appeal to fear and guilt (which I inevitably encountered in the particular churches that I attended). I have found, therefore, that I tend to feel much more reverent, and much closer to the mystical Source of all that is, when wandering the back country, or when viewing pictures such as this one.
 

Religion and Theology Links:

A sea of religious and theological material exists on the web, much of it dreadful, but some of it very good. Here I include a few links that are especially useful to me. Some of them provide access to wide ranging indexes that catalogue some of the best material, and others provide access to classic theological texts, to on-line Bibles, to a couple of sites that combines a conservative view of the Bible with a larger hope for universal reconciliation, and to the home pages for some relevant usenet discussion groups.

 

• APS Guide to Resources in Theology
• Fides Quaerens Internetum - Christian Theology Page
• Guide to Christian Theology on the Net
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library
• Searchable Bibles On-line
• Tentmaker--conservative universalist site
• The Christian Universalists Association
  
• Savior of All Fellowship
• soc.religion.christian Home Page
• Atheism on the Web

 

A Paper of Mine:

Concerning False Prophets and the Abuse of Revelation

Postings to the Net

Occasionally, I have been inspired to enter an electronic forum and to engage others on some theological topic, and once in a while I may even have managed to address an issue in ways that may be of interest to a larger audience. So here I reproduce a few "discussion starters" that I have employed and a few exchanges as well. (Note: I'll be adding a number of new items soon.)
 
• A Simple Argument for Universalism
• Universalism, Calvinism, and Arminianism: Some Preliminary Reflections
• The Essential Role of Free Will in Universal Reconciliation
• Are Some Sins Unpardonable?
• Eternal Punishment? Here I reproduce a couple of posts in which I show why the New Testament idea of eternal punishment carries no implication of unending punishment.
• A Question About Hitler . In an electronic forum, I recently asked how many felt that in Hitler's shoes they would have fared better than he did. It is not at all a precise question, but it sparked an intriguing discussion. So I reproduce here both my original discussion starter and my response to the replies that I received.
• Concerning Limited Election and Reprobation : Here I reproduce six entries from my side of an exchange with one, Zachary Haston, and these, I believe, illustrate some of the logical paradoxes to which an Augustinian (or Calvinistic theology) inevitably succumbs.
• Concerning Revelation and the Bible : These four posts, one of which appeared in soc.religion.christian and the other three of which appeared in the Society of Christian Philosophers Listserve, deal with the way in which some Christians employ the Bible in support of morally repugnant doctrines.

The above heading is also the title of a book I have written in which I express some of my own deepest convictions about the nature of God and the world. I provide some additional information about the book and some downloadable chapters on another website, which you can reach by clicking here .
 
 

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