I bought my first computer in 1998. I wanted access to this new fad people called the "Internet." After I finally got online I discovered this crazy thing called a "chat room" where people from all over the world were chatting about... well, pretty much everything. I was a 23 year-old minister with some Bible college education under my belt who knew just enough Greek to convince myself that I really knew what I was talking about. I got excited when I found an "atheist" chat room, because I was about to drop some knowledge on the heathens.
This was my first experience debating with non-Christians. I knew plenty of people who weren't Christian, but this was the first time I attempted any kind of serious intellectual exchange with people who weren't "saved." I finally had the chance to actually put all that apologetics training to use. I was ready. I didn't think they'd have any way to counter or even respond to my arguments. Then I met Sarah.
"Sarah Skeptic" was her screen name in the chat rooms as well as the nom de plume she used on her website, which she called "Questioning Christianity." Sarah used to be a Christian. Then she started asking questions, and discovered that no one could give her adequate answers. She continued questioning Christianity until that day she admitted to herself that perhaps adequate answers to her questions don't exist; or at the very least, they aren't available for her to find.
Sarah and I chatted regularly for a while. I visited her website often, reading conversations she had with "fundies" and other essays she had written which reflected her agnosticism. She called me an enigma, because - as she said - I was a very logical thinker and quite open-minded, yet I believed things like Moses' parting the Red Sea and Jonah's being swallowed by a giant fish.
I eventually lost contact with Sarah. She no longer frequented the chat rooms (as far as I could tell), and she had taken down her website. I'm sure I'll never know what became of her, but I'll always remember the woman who has a special place in my memory as my first "Internet friend" (someone you become friends with online but have never met out in the "real world"), and the person who inspired me to create a website and start writing. Of course, Sarah inspired me to create a website which, in contrast to her "Questioning Christianity," was my attempt to answer skeptics.
Little did I know at the time that Sarah had really inspired me to give an answer to one skeptic in particular: myself. In the end I realized that I needed to find the same answers Sarah sought. I gave my daughter the name "Sarah" in part to honor the person who is partially responsible for the intellectual journey that has brought me to where I am today. When I came up with this T-shirt design, my thoughts drifted immediately to Sarah:
Thanks Sarah, wherever you are.
Dead-Logic.com
