As I watched the entirety of the National Geographic video Jesus the Preacher with my historical Jesus class today, and listened as scholars addressed issues of population, acoustics and logistics that relate to addressing crowds near the sea of Galilee in antiquity, even mentioning at one point those on the fringe who might not be able to hear well, I kept expecting them to use this famous scene from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian as an illustration: Read more

Even in written communication, one can often be misunderstood if one uses a term or refers to a story, and yet your understanding of that term or story is different than the generally accepted one. This doesn’t mean that you can’t disagree about the meaning. My point is that, if your understanding is significantly different from that of others, then you need to explicitly argue for your different understanding, or else risk misunderstanding. What I’m really wondering is whether any... Read more

The NCSE just sent an e-mail about the fact that John F. Haught will be speaking on “Evolution and Faith: What Is at Stake?” at 7:30 p.m. on October 22, at Rawles Hall, Room 100 on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington. Admission is free and open to the public. Haught is senior fellow of science and religion at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center, and well known as an author and a speaker addressing matters of evolution and creation,... Read more

In addition to the PBS video series From Jesus To Christ, which can be watched online, another useful program I’ve found online is the National Geographic show Jesus the Preacher, featuring numerous well known scholars as well as useful information about topography and oral communication. Read more

Those who have materials on Geocities will already have received e-mails about the fact that the site will be closing in about a week’s time. Others who have found useful things there from time to time, however, may not be aware of this. If there is something on there that you have found useful, now might be a good time to save a copy. If you are interested in saving your own materials from Geocities, here’s the easiest way to... Read more

Two blogs I read regularly today shared posts that relate directly or indirectly to conversations we’ve had in the blogosphere. First is Mark Goodacre, who pointed out the great resources made available on the web site connected with Mark Allen Powell’s new book Introducing the New Testament. He then went on to note some problems with the presentation of the Synoptic problem there, including a failure to include the Farrar hypothesis. Since we’ve been discussing the Synoptic problem and Q... Read more

The two most famous keyboard solos performed by Tony Banks of Genesis are those in Cinema Show and In The Cage. To some, they are familiar in part from a medley that he often performs live in concert (with one additional brief motif from “Riding the Scree” sometimes thrown in for good measure). I promised a week ago to try working on the In The Cage solo next, and it is coming along. And so last night I tried recording... Read more

If you haven’t watched tonight’s episode yet, don’t read this. It mentions something that happens at the very end of the episode. So having offered a spoiler warning, now we can continue. Basically this post is to ask what other fans of Heroes made of Sylar’s “baptism”. Lots of characters are seeking redemption in this episode – Hiro Nakamura and Noah Bennett in particular. Sylar (or is it Gabriel? or Nathan?) seems to be too. Is the symbolism of the... Read more

While looking for some videos to help me work out the left hand chords that accompany the keyboard solo on the Genesis song “In The Cage”, I happened across this video with Tony Banks talking about his keyboard melodies on a BBC documentary from the 1980s. Read more

LOST is of particular interest to Egyptologists, whose services have been called upon once again to explain some of the show’s mythology, hieroglyphics, and symbolism. DocArtz points out an article in Popular Mechanics which in turn enlists the help of Dr. James Allen, Wilbour Professor of Egyptology and Chair of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies at Brown University, to translate what is written on the poster for the final season. Allen is quoted as saying, “The hieroglyphs spell out... Read more