If you’re a former believer, as I am, there is a good chance that you used to think you had everything in hand – literally. We fundamentalists had a good book, and were taught to believe that between its two covers laid all the answers to life’s great questions. As a child, I thought as a child, but as we grow up we must put away such childish thinking and learn to hammer out the tough questions for ourselves.
Everyone’s path must be their own, but it’s not at all uncommon to turn to the study of philosophy in lieu of faith-based texts. My entire personal arc of apostasy was informed by philosophy, most especially ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of religion. My mentor during this process was Dr. Ted Drange of WVU, who constantly challenged me and helped me clarify me thinking on all these issues. I found it incredibly helpful at this point in my life to have someone who had already thought these questions through from back to front, and who was far more interested in making me think than giving me prepackaged answers.
In that proud tradition of helping young apostates piece together a positive philosophy for themselves, my friend Dan Fincke (of Camels with Hammers) is hoping to take his philosophical knowledge and experience directly to the people, offering “affordable, non-matriculated, private philosophy classes” via the internet. Here is the course survey, which will help him gage the interest and availability of prospective students. If that’s something you might be interested in doing, please do have a look at the survey and see what interests you.
ETA: If you’d like to hear a sample of Dan speaking on various topics, he was our guest on the AOK podcast a little while back. Good times!
