CHAPTER
39
AFTER YOU READ THIS BOOK
Something about me in the third person!
Thomas E. Blaylock, Jr., has personally experienced
and lived the gambit of western philosophy and religion. He began life in the
superstitious and wildly ecstatic religious regions of the Tennessee and North
Georgia Mountains. He accepted Jesus and was saved early in life. In time, he
joined four different fundamental churches. He was baptized four times each
using different formulas. Add his thirteen years experience as a Southern
Baptist minister, eleven years as a Presbyterian minister and chaplain, then add his study of the Cao Dai, Tao and
Buddhist religions in the Orient and it seems his HONEST MAN’S PHILOSOPHY has been writing itself.
It is claimed by his mother that he spoke his first
words at eight months old when he pointed out the window at a truck and asked,
“What is that?” Since that time, he has never stopped asking “What? Why? How?
And When?” When asked if he were an expert on philosophy, his answer was, “No,
I am only an expert on wanting to know.”
At Stetson University, in spite of making excellent
grades, he continued to stay in trouble with his religious professors by asking
those irritating, and to the point, questions that are part and parcel of his
thinking and interest in life. Three times he was ejected from religion classes
for asking questions like, “Can prayer change God’s
mind?” And “Where did all the water go after the flood?” The many claims made
by religion, politics and business seem to be a personal challenge to Mr.
Blaylock and in his quiet questing manner he probes deeply into those claims.
At the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, he
faired worse with his professors than he did at the university. Because of his
questions, which soon embroiled the whole class in theological, and
philosophical turmoil, he was forbidden to speak in a couple of his classes. He
was to submit his (on the subject) questions in writing and the professors were
supposed to grant him personal time to deal with the specific questions. Though
he submitted questions and begged for an audience, it never happened. The
Baptist professors avoided him like the plague.
Becoming somewhat disappointed with the scholarship of
the Baptists, he accepted a call as interim pastor to a Presbyterian Church
while still a student. He remained with that denomination for eleven years. He
said the Presbyterians were kind, gracious and helpful. The Presbyter
encouraged him to answer his own questions and gave him a monthly allowance to
purchase the books he wished to study. He soon studied himself out of the
Presbyterian Church doctrines, but remained in the church for a while due to
the friendship and kindnesses of the members.
Mr. Blaylock served in Vietnam as a Presbyterian
Chaplain and made full use of any extra time to speak with priests, monks and
leaders there. He spent many long nights asking questions of these Oriental
religious leaders and philosophers. In return, he received numerous books,
engaged in many deep and eye opening discussions concerning the truth about
their religion and philosophies. He was even allowed to participate in a Cao
Dai service. That night he had a precognitive dream that saved his life.
In 1974, he left the Presbyterian Church and opened a
bookstore north of Atlanta. It was there in 1979 that he began work on the HONEST MAN’S PHILOSOPHY. After many
delays and restarts, he finished the work in 1989 and like many do, he stored
it on a shelf in his office. When he sold his store in December of 1999 to
retire, he rediscovered the book, reread it and let some knowledgeable people
read it. He was pushed by his friends to publish the work. He put some of it on
the Internet and was flooded with request for personal copies.
Mr. Blaylock has revised and edited the HONEST MAN’S PHILOSOPHY. When he wrote
about leaving the church he said, “I am glad I saved a portion of my life for
myself. I also saved some of me for you.” When you read the Honest Man’s Philosophy, you will bless
the day this book came your way.
If you like hard, to the point questions, about
philosophy, morality and religion, and if you like to struggle and find the
answers to the major issues of life, you will read and reread the HONEST MAN’S PHILOSOPHY. Few writers
have made philosophy as interesting, lucid and challenging, as has Mr.
Blaylock. He will be available for lectures in the Spring
of 2009.
Thomas E. Blaylock, Jr. was born in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, October 18, 1931 on the day Thomas Alvin Edison died. The sign he
was born under said, “DO NOT DISTURB.” Since then, he has hunted and found
peace with himself and the world.
Copyright: July 1999