Evolution weekend and Darwin Day are almost here. If you don’t already follow the Clergy Letter Project you should, and subscribe to their newsletter. They recently shared, among other things, Barbara Hamm’s hymn, “The Vast Expanse of Time and Space,” including not only the sheet music for that but also videos with songs and information relevant to the intersection of religion and science. The Butler University campus ministry Grace Unlimited shared Genesis 1: An Ongoing Dialogue. Having felt that the topic of creationism had been less visible and getting less attention in the media and elsewhere lately, I think I lulled myself into a false sense that things were improving. But in my class this semester on the Bible, after a couple of class periods focused on the creation stories, I discovered that a great many of them were eager to talk about evolution and how it relates to what is in the Bible. I hope that what I shared with them was helpful. I am pretty sure that just about everything I mentioned in that class I have mentioned on this blog before. As of 10 years ago I had already written a lot on the topic as you can see in this round up of just the highlights, and I’ve written much more since then. I assume that if you’re interested you can find those things through a keyword search, but it would probably be useful to revisit those subjects in fresh blog posts, even if they incorporate some of that earlier material. How many readers would be interested in that, I wonder? Even if not a pressing concern for you, it might still help that content reach others via Google searches. Either way, I’m interested to hear from you!
On a range of topics related to science in some way and of likely interest to blog readers (since they interest me and my blog, which regularly covers such things, interests you):
Creationism bears all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory
Co-Writing with Artificial Intelligence With Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
A congressional panel says we have a moral imperative to build a terminator.
Can robots make good therapists?
There is an interesting call for papers for a conference on AI and the human
Artificial intelligence: a house divided
President Biden will keep the Space Force that President Trump brought into existence.
Tom McLeish drew attention to the 2021 Boyle Lecture on the rediscovery of contemplation in science.
There are a number of videos of past lectures as well as information about future events on the CASIRAS (Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science) website.
Almost finally, I mentioned this bit of silliness of mine in my class on the Bible and music and decided to dig it out again. Here’s my parody song “Let There Be” which is a mash-up, essentially, of Genesis 1 and the Beatles song “Let It Be”:
The students in that class noticed how musical Genesis 1 is in the sense that it has natural poetic characteristics, structure, and repeated phrases. I’m surprised that it hasn’t been set to music more frequently than it has. It might be the focus of my next musical project. I’ve actually had some ideas along those lines, but since that would be a choral or choral and orchestral work, it is too daunting to contemplate seriously for the time being. For now, the snippets of ideas remain in my head.
Finally, here again is that collection of creationism and intelligent design blogging highlights for your convenience:
Blogging Creationism and Intelligent Design: The Highlights Revisited
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