[ref001]
Search The Scriptures
[ref002]




Search the Scriptures

   What a difference a year makes! When we began publication last year,
many of our free trial-subscriptions were greeted with angry rejections. 
Copies were returned to us marked REFUSED, and letters were received
calling The Skeptical Review "junk" or "trash."  Even
phone calls came from people demanding that their names be removed from
our mailing lists.  Some compliments were paid, but they were few and far
between, and only a fraction of those who had received free subscriptions
paid to continue them.

   This year brought a dramatic change.  As we prepare this final article
for the last issue of 1991, we still receive negative letters, but the
positive ones far outnumber the negative. On a typical day, the mail will
bring letters from new readers ordering back issues and from old readers
suggesting names to add to our mailing list. Subscription requests will
come from people who heard about TSR from this relative or that friend.
Sometimes these recommendations have crossed the country from one side to
the other.  Just recently a professor of philosophy and religion at a
university in Mississippi wrote and said, "I do not know how my name
got on your mailing list.  But today I received a copy of _The_Skeptical
Review_, and I think it is superb.  Please keep my name on your mailing
list."

   Sometimes we even get phone calls from people looking for help as they
try to find their way out of the mess that religious fundamentalism has
made of their lives. The last such call came from a Baptist who, after
embarking on a plan to study the Bible and really come to know what was in
"God's word,"  become disillusioned at the inconsistencies he
had found in it. He called The Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Dan
Barker suggested that he contact us.  He is now on our mailing list.

   We would like to share with you more of the communications like these
that we are now receiving, but to do so we would have to sacrifice space
that we need to discuss the inerrancy issue.  Your letters indicate that
you like what you are seeing in TSR, so we will continue to try to bring
you the same kind of articles.  We have never solicited financial help,
but some have included contributions with their subscription payments and
orders for other materials that we publish.  We appreciate the help and
see it as a definite indication that we are attracting readers who
consider _The_Skeptical_Review_ to be a worthwhile enterprise.

   Still there are those who object to what we are doing, especially
former friends and associates who knew us when we were deeply entrenched
in the absurdities of Bible fundamentalism.  They continue to write to
express their dismay at what they are reading and their personal
disappointment in us.  They rarely attempt to refute what we say in our
articles; they concentrate on reminding us of what we once were in an
apparent effort to arouse feelings of guilt.  Our position, however, is
that one should never feel shame or guilt over taking a stand for truth,
and we believe that we have the truth on our side.

   The Jews at Beroea were once commended because they "searched the
scriptures daily" to see if the things Paul was preaching to them
"were so" ([ref003]Acts 17:11).  We
present the same challenge to readers who think that we have drifted off
into a terrible apostasy.  Check to see if we are right. We don't just
make wild assertions; we document every major point we make with specific
scripture references. So when we say that scripture x contradicts
scripture y, you have the opportunity to verify what we are saying. 
Search the scriptures to see if what we are saying is so.  That's all we
are asking for--a fair hearing.



FREE SUBSCRIPTION: A free one-year subscription to _The_Skeptical_
Review_ can be obtained by emailing [ref004]Jftill@aol.com or by writing to P.O. Box 
717, Canton, IL 61520-0717.

File contributed by [ref005]Farrell Till; page
maintained by the [ref006]Internet Infidels.

[ref007]Email: 
[ref008]infidel@freethought.tamu.edu
[ref009]JL

[ref010]Copyright © 1995 [ref011]Internet Infidels.
HTML Reproduction Rights Reserved.






[ref001] mailto:jlowder@atheist.tamu.edu
[ref002] http://freethought.tamu.edu/mag/sr/1991/4/4front91.html
[ref003] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Acts+17:11
[ref004] mailto:Jftill@aol.com
[ref005] mailto:Jftill@aol.com
[ref006] /infidel.html
[ref007] mailto:infidel@freethought.tamu.edu
[ref008] /cgi-bin/mail?infidel
[ref009] http://atheist.tamu.edu/~jlowder/
[ref010] /copyright.html
[ref011] /infidels/