Philosophy and goals
Providing a safe, intelligent environment for genuine, tough questions.
It's hard to explore the subject of religion in detail without raising controversial issues and generating disagreements. We try to achieve political correctness where possible, to hear conflicting opinions and view things from multiple angles, and to give each other the benefit of the doubt.That said, we've made the deliberate decision to remain focused and true to our beliefs. This includes making our stance explicitly known, so that people who wish to know more about what motivates us, why we run this site, and where our thoughts come from, will have a solid starting point, and this will minimise the effort spent in trying to discern our point of view.
We want keep things simple. The topics addressed are complex enough without being obscured by technical jargon and protracted sentences. We’ve tried hard to articulate our thoughts precisely and clearly, and to explore a good variety of issues, so that enough ground is covered but we still get our most important points firmly across.
You may have a specific topic or set of questions in mind, and would like to plunge straight into the sections that interest you. You may, instead, prefer to browse leisurely through the articles and pursue new directions of thought as they emerge. Whatever your needs, we’ve tried to organise the sections so that there is a specific article for each topic.
Each article can be read independently or in combination with others. There’s a great deal of conceptual overlap between topics, so we’ve put links throughout, to let you navigate smoothly between related articles. A page that deals with the topic of morality, for example, will have ties to pages on consciousness, free will, human suffering, and the purpose of life.
We ask one thing of you: follow your curiosity. Keep asking questions and thinking. Feel free to digest our content at your own pace. Don’t accept our opinions and statements without examining them until you’re satisfied!
One of our main aims is to stimulate critical and creative thinking. This naturally leads us into territory that may seem provocative or taboo for some readers. If some of the subjects we address are ones that people are reluctant to broach in daily conversation, and if we manage to probe at issues that tend to make you uncomfortable, then one of our goals has been served. We hope that the act of putting this discourse out in the open and allowing people to access it will lead to meaningful insights and deeper understanding, to everyone’s benefit.
We strive to write and communicate at levels that allow a large number of visitors to digest the concepts and have a satisfying read, without letting our content get superficial, boring, and peppered with the obvious. Our content is written in a fairly informal, conversational tone- in doing so, we hope to clarify the scope of the questions we are dealing with, identify key underlying assumptions, and to break the discussion down into manageable sub-topics and take things one step at a time.
At the same time, we’ve tried to go into enough depth with each subject, to stimulate the reader’s interest and trigger revelations in thought and paradigm shifts, without overwhelming and distracting the reader with numerous references to scientific studies and papers. There are many excellent, readily available texts out there, written by dedicated researchers who have a keen understanding of their subject, that provide supporting evidence and documentation that lie beyond the scope of this website. Some of these materials are listed under ‘recommended reading,’ and we hope that those of you who may be disappointed by the lack of encyclopaedic detail on our pages will find valuable information through these other channels.
Our coverage of the subject is far from exhaustive and there're plenty of fascinating points and issues that may spring to mind, which we have not discussed or included here. We are constantly updating and elaborating on our content would be happy to receive your input and suggestions. (See our Contact Us page.) We're a small team, so we may take a while to get back to you. Every comment is appreciated and we'll try our best to respond to as many queries as we can.
