Occasionally I'll get an email or a comment on reddit asking if I have plans to post more on this blog. I figure I'd post the answer I usually reply here first, and then after discuss the possibility of future directions.
When I started this blog several years ago now, the plan was to post something of content every week for a year. Over the course of the year, I wanted to build the case in support of some of the conclusions regarding the Torah that appear in academia. These include the idea that the Torah is a composition from multiple authors stitched together sometimes very artfully and sometimes not. I also brought significant support from archaeology to show, to the best of my ability, that many events described in the Torah are not historical, and were written at a much later date. I'd like to think I was successful at showing these things, but I also know, based on many of the comments that not everyone is convinced. That's very much ok.
The purpose was twofold. One was I wanted there to be a repository of this information, sourced to academic scholars, that could be used by me or others to argue against many of the religious apologetics that litter the web. The other purpose was more selfish. In the years prior to starting the blog, I had read a very extensive amount of history and commentaries on the Tanach and the Ancient Near East. I wanted to compile that information even if only for myself. The culmination of the blog was a personal discussion of why I do not believe the Tanach represents the production of a deity, but rather represents a very human creation.
During the year of writing I usually was able to keep ahead of the release schedule, sometimes by up to a month. About months from the actual completion of the blog, I had already completed all the final posts. There were a few miscellaneous topics that I didn't cover over the year, and I wrote up some of them, and others exist in unfinished drafts. At this point, though, I had stopped researching this specific topic and started reading on other topics. I've read a lot of works, some fiction but mostly nonfiction. Lots of history, some philosophy, and a good chunk of physics and mathematics. What I haven't read is works of biblical criticism. In fact, I recently opened an academic book on the Jewish approach to mythology but I found that my interest was very minimal. I read the first fifty pages and then put it aside. I still will read interesting papers or posts where I come across them, but what I haven't done is make a concerted effort to keep on top of the literature.
All this is to say, is that I'm unlikely to write another post like the one I wrote regarding the Exodus or the origins of Hannukah. I know that there are people who want such posts, but I really feel that I accomplished what I planned to accomplish over the year, and that I just don't have much more to say on the topic.
But let's look forward a bit. There are still things that I could say that may be tangentially related to the original purpose of the blog. If there's interest, I would write about them here. If not, they may find outlets through some other medium under some other name. Some topics are closely related to Jewish outlook or Hashkafah. These would be my thoughts about the existence of gods, souls and other such matters. Other topics could be related to modern Jewish life itself while not dealing with the Jewish religion per se. These would be posts on Anti-Semitism, Israel, and Ultra-Orthodox communities. Yet other posts would be pretty far afield. There are lots of interesting things I'd like to say about mathematics, physics, politics, sociology. I have thoughts about the state of the climate, the thorny political issue of abortion, an explanation of why I never plan to have kids, etc.
Anyway that's the question. I don't know if anyone is still following this blog, but if you are, let me know what you think. Would you want to hear my thoughts on things? Or should I leave this blog as it is, a testament to several years of research, and a year of posts.
If I do this, there won't be a schedule. The posts will be more haphazard, and the topics will be whatever I feel like writing about.
