Skeptic Tank Text Archive File

Front Page: winter 1990

WHY ANOTHER RELIGIOUS PUBLICATION?


   If there is anything the world already has enough of, surely that would 
be religious publications.  The pouches of our mail carriers bulge with reli-
gious journals, magazines,  periodicals, and bulletins already circulating 
through our postal system.  The Church of Christ, which the publishers of 
The Skeptical Review were once affiliated with, produces the Gospel Advo-
cate, Firm Foundation, Christian Chronicle, Reason & Revelation, Power, and 
at least a score of smaller, less known publications, and  the journalistic 
production of many other churches is just as prolific.  Why then would 
anyone want to add anything else to this mountainous glut?  

     We could quibble and say that ours is not a religious publication.  In 
the strictest sense of the word, religion is the expression of belief in and 
reverence for a supernatural entity, so in that respect ours will certainly not 
be a "religious" publication. At no time will we be found admonishing our 
readers to "believe in God"; we won't even get involved in the theism-atheism 
controversy.  Being primarily agnostic in our convictions, we will leave this 
matter to those who are far more sure of their positions (on both sides) than 
we could ever be.  

     Our purpose will be to promote critical examination of the Bible inerran-
cy doctrine, and that will make ours an unusual publication. There are jour-
nals that devote some space to this subject, but only one other we know 
about that exists only to challenge traditional assumptions on which this belief 
has thrived.  As our readers get to know us, we suspect that many will 
concur in saying that we are far from religious. Some might even insist that 
"irreligious" more  appropriately describes us. Nevertheless, our editorial 
purpose will focus in each issue on an important religious matter--the doctrine 
of Bible inerrancy--and so to that extent we have to agree that ours is a 
religious publication.  We just can't think of The Skeptical Review as being 
only "another" religious publication.  We think we will be quite different from 
the others.

     An important difference will be our editorial policy of publishing compe-
tently written responses to our lead articles. Not many religious journals do 
this. Most of them publish only materials that agree with the particular doc-
trinal beliefs they were created to promulgate.  In this issue, for example, 
we are publishing "The Inerrancy Doctrine Is Found To Be Impregnable," 
which Jerry Moffitt was invited to write in reply to "The Last Hurrah of the 
Inerrancy Doctrine," our lead article that begins on the next page.  In 
future issues, we will continue to publish dissenting views. 

     We had a twofold purpose in adopting this policy.  First, we firmly 
believe that no philosophical opinion, not even our own, is worthy of accept-
ance if it cannot survive the scrutiny of public forum.  Secondly, we believe 
that printing responses to our articles will demonstrate the soundness of our 
position. If the best qualified minds in the inerrancy camp cannot refute our 
arguments--and we believe they can't--that should be a strong indication, at 
the very least, that  our  position deserves further consideration.  

     With the publication of our first issue, we earnestly solicit your consid-
eration of our views on this important matter. If you disagree with us, write 
a response.  We will consider it for publication.  If you have questions, send 
them to us.  We will try to answer them.

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