Dear Vinny
In defense of Terry (and he has no need for my or any others defense, he is well capable of that himself, well researched, well read and a deep thinker) he seeks IMHO only to make others think; he asks only that they take themselves out of their comfort zone and truly test the quality and honesty of their beliefs and reasonings. At your own admission you are not aware of some of the authors that Terry quoted, and therefore you can hardly become a critic of Terry's opinion and comments on these if you are not familiar with them. Rest assured he will have experience and knowledge of their ideas.
Nobody takes Terrys threads to be gospel truth, but neither do they view him as arrogant or narrow in his view. As you yourself stated he to was once a JW, so he has stood both sides of the fence, and its his experience and subsequent research and search for knowledge that leads to his interesting and sometimes controversial threads and comments.
I was raised with a belief in God and with a very comforting hope for the future, but what I see around me leads me to question very hard the existence of a God. If you told your child not to eat a chocoloate bar in the fridge, but they did what would be your response to this act? Would yours be a continous punishment, which extended to your grandchildren and beyond? And where does the blame actually lie? Neither Adam or Eve asked to be created and as such to be created with the ability to sin. That was all Gods doing. Can you really explain how a God of love and forgiveness can sit back and watch the evil and horrendous things that befall men knowing that he is the only one capable of bringing these things to an end?
And what about other religions and religious books? So many are just victims of the circumstance they are born into. They believe because their parents believe. How can God allow there to be so much confusion about what is right? What the true course to him is? If you are born an aetheist, and you could ignore all the conflict and sadness that occurs in the world and still want to believe in a God, it would take you a lifetime exploring all the different faiths that exist to decide which is true. Surely the path to him should be simple and clear and yet, it is not.
And why does God want worshippers? Why couldnt he be happy with a creation that lived simply and happily? Why the need to put them into a game of Chess with his adversary the devil, as if his word is to be believed, we are all pretty much in the same situation as Job?
And why the need to buy back our sin/death with the life of his own son? Why did something need to be given for his forgivness or for the redeeming of our chance at eternal life? God shouldnt need to be bought?
If you look deeper into why so many religions exist, the purposes Religion served in it particular period of time and how it changed with the social changes at any given time you may be shocked at what you learn.
Dont take for granted teachings you were given as a child and blankets of comfort 'knowledge' that serve to keep you warm and safe without really questioning the honesty, truth and reliability of their fabric.
All the best to you
Fi