2012-03-19T05:56:38-05:00

Karl Giberson has a new book out, The Wonder of the Universe: Hints of God in Our Fine-Tuned World, published by IVP. I received a copy of the book courtesy of the publisher awhile back and have begun to read it over the last few days.  This book is a description of the wonder of our universe and of the process of discovery that led to our modern understanding of the universe.  It is an excellent book for a general... Read more

2012-03-20T05:47:40-05:00

E.P. Sanders famously said the problem with Judaism for contemporaries of Paul was that it was not Christianity. Sanders was a lightning rod and at the same time a lighthouse for scholars in the late 70s and 80s, and his legacy — usually called the “new perspective” (language used by Tom Wright and Jimmy Dunn) — has been that while there is a clear difference between “Judaism” and “Christianity,” that relationship in the 1st Century — and perhaps a lot... Read more

2012-03-19T07:06:18-05:00

Razib Khan’s post on why change is difficult: One of the things I instinctively hated about my “ancestral culture,” that of Bangladesh, is that there wasn’t that great of an emphasis on individual independent thought. Why, for example, was it important never to drink water while you were eating, as opposed to after you were done? The response was simple: that’s the rule. Even if there was a functional rationale, there wasn’t even any pretense at offering a reasoned explanation for... Read more

2012-03-17T07:19:23-05:00

From Lists of Note: In July of 1952, Nancy Mitford wrote to her friend, the famous novelist Evelyn Waugh, and asked: “What do you do with all the people who want interviews, with fan letters & with fans in the flesh? Just a barrage of nos?” Waugh’s reply contained the following — a list of the stock responses he used in such situations. (Source: Evelyn Waugh: A Biography; Image: Evelyn Waugh, via.) I am not greatly troubled by fans nowadays. Less than one a... Read more

2012-03-17T07:17:17-05:00

By Russell Moore: Dear Dr. Moore, My wife and I are at an impasse. There’s been no abandonment, no sexual immorality, and no abuse. We just don’t get along. We shouldn’t have married. We should have known we are incompatible. I know God hates divorce but I don’t have any other option. My pastor and some Christian counselors have told me that while God hates divorce, this is the lesser of two evils because God doesn’t want me to be... Read more

2012-03-19T06:19:52-05:00

The issue for Alan Spence is that the Western world for a long, long time taught what I called last week a “justification worldview,” one in which humans are sinners and God is judge and those sinners are called to account before God in a grand final judgment. How they fair in that judgment determines their eternal destiny. Spence argues that was the Western world’s worldview from Augustine through Michelangelo. (Spence, Justification: A Guide for the Perplexed.) The question he... Read more

2012-03-12T07:23:31-05:00

My pastor when I was a teenager often said from the pulpit that if there are tears in heaven, or at the last judgment, it will be the result of realizing how sinful we were or comprehending what we didn’t do and could have done. He said this often and that is why I remember it. Here’s my question: Are tears at the last judgment, or even in heaven, a form of Purgatory? Which of course requires that we define... Read more

2012-03-18T14:28:19-05:00

(Adam, you listening?) By Susan Cain: (CNN) — The theory of evolution. The theory of relativity. The Cat in the Hat. All were brought to you by introverts. Our culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity’s greatest achievements — from Steve Wozniak’s invention of the Apple computer to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. And these introverts did what they did not in spite of their temperaments — but because of them. As... Read more

2012-03-17T07:15:00-05:00

The NY Knicks, evidently, won’t be featuring Jeremy Lin as much now that they have a new coach. The great lesson of Linsanity — at least, as we understood it in February — is that expertise can be flawed and impressions faulty.Jeremy Lin taught us not to assume too much, especially as it pertains to Jeremy Lin. Yet as we survey the ever-changing, perpetually dysfunctional Knickslandscape, it is hard not to draw one hard conclusion: It’s the end of Linsanity as... Read more

2012-03-17T07:12:39-05:00

I’m convinced the death penalty does us no good, and neither does it ultimately restore justice. Whether one agrees with me or not, restoration to society is the aim of imprisonment, and here’s a guy who seems to be on that path. The letter to the editor of a prestigious archaeology magazine came from inmate No. J81961 at Tehachapi State Prison. Prisoner Timothy Fenstermacher, a high school dropout, wrote to disagree with an article by an archaeologist at Hebrew University... Read more

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