Harry H. McCall
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Technology |
| Occupation | Communication Engineer for the S.C. Dept. of Transporation |
| Location | Greenville, South Carolina, United States |
| Links | Audio Clip |
| Introduction | The problem with a religion like Christianity is that it is organized as a rigid creedal discipline where people sometimes end up “knowing” a lot and not understanding much. My focus is on critical examination. Sometimes that can mean dogmatic foundations are shattered. For example, looking critically at the Bible can be upsetting since many people who are attracted to Christianity have learned reverence for the Bible – that it is scared. When you take it apart in a critical way it can shake-up that sense of “here is the final word of authority”. That can be very difficult to deal with. The task of the Historical Critical Method is to help people discover what is true by taking criticism into account and often learning to make sense of conflicting truths such as viewing the Biblical Canon as an anthology composed by scribes with many different ideas about God, history and truth. Thus, contrary to creedal apologetic Christianity, a strong intellect is one that has tested itself. In this sense, critical thinking is validated when one's mental world is expanded; when one is not told what to think, but how to think critically about the Bible and reality! |
| Interests | Religion; Electronics and Life (It's Been One Hell of a Ride!) A word of advice on the proof of God for both or the believer(who wants to know what "God" looks like) and for the atheist (who says there is no "God"): Try looking in the mirror! As such, my position is one of critical engagement. I neither affirm nor deny religion, but understand it in its many ancient and modern contexts. |
| Favorite movies | The Descendants; Beasts of the Southern Wild; The Mission; Sling Blade; No Country for Old Men; The Town; Fargo; Marathon Man; A Simple Plan; Papillon; Munich; Nothing but Trouble; The Last of the Mohicans; Deliverance; What Ever Happen to Baby Jane; Frozen; All Is Lost; Prisoners; Seven Years a Slave |
| Favorite music | Blue Grass; Classical Country; Jazz and Southern Gospel |
| Favorite books | King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice: Biblical Distortions of Historical Realities; Christianity, Judaism and Other Greco-Roman Cults: Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty; The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great; The Septuagint (LXX), Masoretic Text (MT), Syriac and Aramaic texts, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Gnosticism and Coptic texts, other ancient Semitic texts, languages and religions; Hellenistic and Classical Greek texts and religions. Electronically: Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers and Switching Power Supply Design |