I will begin two new writing projects this month, and they should take at least four to six months to complete. I will also be revamping and beefing up the “Articles” tab of this website. I also have two pieces of bad news.

The first new writing project will be a comprehensive answer to the new book edited by John W. Loftus, The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails. I haven’t yet got a copy of the book. Until then, the four essays that appear online at the book’s official website should keep me busy. My official answers and links to the offerings of other apologists will be located at http://www.christiandelusion.info, though right now there’s not a whole lot to look at.

J.P. Holding appears to also be doing an answer to The Christian Delusion. The final result of the poll he took on TheologyWeb indicated (narrowly) that readers wanted him to take the book on. I made the decision to undertake my project before I heard about Holding’s decision.

The second writing project is a revamp of the blog God is NOT Imaginary, currently located here. I started this blog in December of 2007, and finished the answering the “proofs” in December of 2008. I added three more pages dealing with the “bonus” proofs in April 2009. I never finished working on responses to the videos.

That will all change. I am going to go through each of my responses and update the material as best I can. I will also be answering each of the videos. Also, since this material is more easily covered as a website rather than a blog, I have begun a website here, but I haven’t yet selected a domain name for it. The one I wanted was literally registered by another user for resale at a much higher price (aka cybersquatting) minutes before I made the purchase.

With both new sites, when I finish each new or updated article, I will enable comments so that the discussion can continue.

The revamp of the “Articles” tab will feature additional material from the blog and I will finally put those articles that are currently located in Google Docs onto a WordPress page. That way, readers may comment on those items publically.

Now for the bad news. First, ICANN has recently increased the cost of domain names. As a one man operation solely funded by nearly non-existent personal monies, I may not be able to continue paying for both domain registration through GoDaddy and hosting through WordPress. That means that I will have to cut one or both of the costs, depending on how much of an increase I see. It looks like .org domains are the most expensive, but I can’t prove it. I could just be paranoid.

If I elect to discontinue paying for WordPress hosting (which is the most likely option), I will transfer to Blogger, which hosts domain names for free. That way, no one will have to adjust their bookmarks or RSS feed. The only difference will be a site layout change, as I’ll have to use a Blogger template.

I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that, because I’m much happier with WordPress than I ever was with Blogger. Three words: Unlimited nested pages. Blogger only allows ten pages outside the blog chronology, while WordPress allows for unlimited pages that can be nested as deeply as you desire. That way, you can build and customize a website that includes your blog. I don’t see a way to do this with Blogger yet, but I’m still experimenting.

The second piece of bad news probably isn’t going to make much of a difference to readers of this site. I will no longer be keeping the blog Fast Food Management Secrets. With the two new writing projects and a revamp of this site in the works, I simply won’t have the time. This makes me sad, because I had some good stuff planned for that site. Running this ministry, however, is far more important to me.

Recently, Craig French wrote:

I have been convinced that the internet feeds pride…even when done in the name of Biblical Christianity. Even if I were not prone to arrogance, I still think using You Tube for arguing for the faith is largely futile. Those who believe it is a venue for spiritual battle forget that users tend to put up their vids because they are already fully convinced/deluded.

I’m not discounting the role of the Holy Spirit. Don’t get me wrong. I am discounting the role of human reason in bringing men to faith. Long ago I decided my aim wouldn’t be so much evangelism as much as helping believers see the futility of unbelief and build them up. (source, ellipses in original, emphasis added)

Maybe I’m too much of an optimist, but I don’t believe that. Human reason is far from perfect, but I believe it can bring people to faith. Of course, when it does,  it is only a tool used by God for that purpose. But I do believe reason can be made to serve that purpose. My own aim with this ministry has been to target honest seekers riding the fence. I want them to see that theism in general, and Christianity in particular, is not a leap of blind faith. I want them to see that we have good reason to believe as we do, and that we can defend these beliefs systematically against detractors.

Craig can cut back his Internet precense, but I’m increasing mine. I believe in Internet evangelism and apologetics moreso than ever, and I pray that God will call his elect through my efforts.