I am pleased to announce a new site dedicated to the exploration of religious ideas “at the margins” – in other words, ideas that are not considered “mainstream.” But of course, one person or group’s mainstream is another’s “margins.” The web site is called Religion at the Margins. Take a look, and enjoy exploring it. I’ve given the OK for some of my older posts to be shared there now, and will be contributing new content in the future. Read more

Jen McCreight mentions someone who developed an automated “argument bot” that finds statements counter to mainstream climate science on Twitter and responds to them with mainstream evidence, and asks when someone will make the same thing for evolutionary biology. I’ve long wondered when the day would come when we’ll program computers to argue about matters of importance, and check from time to time to see whether they’ve settled the matter. Such bots, of course, require data and arguments to draw... Read more

There is a series at BioLogos by David Ussery engaging the claims of Michael Behe in his book The Edge of Evolution. I hadn’t linked to it before since the first three posts were largely introductory. But today’s fourth post in the series begins to engage the heart of the matter, and offers a lot of specific, detailed counter-evidence that undercuts the claims made by Behe and other proponents of intelligent design. I highly recommend it. Read more

Bill Caraher has kindly shared two reviews he wrote of the same book – one for his blog, one for publication in a traditional print format. He did this expressly to provide an opportunity to compare how scholars write for these two different venues and audiences. I was particularly struck by how he summarized his own perception of the difference: For people who struggle to wrap their minds around the difference between a blog and a formal print publication, perhaps... Read more

A good friend of mine who teaches at St. John’s University in Tanzania mentioned a particular need that some readers of this blog may be able to help meet: We are still looking for some second hand books that some of you may have lying around from student days. If you have any copies of: B.M Metzger, Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek. and/or J.W. Wenham, The Elements of New Testament Greek. we would be delighted to receive... Read more

When we talk about “earthshaking” events and even “apocalyptic” ones without meaning either term literally. And so it is not inappropriate that interpreters have been asking whether ancient authors of apocalyptic literature, or who use imagery characteristic of such sources, meant everything they said literally. Two blog posts today touch on this topic: Daniel Kirk posts on Mark 13 and the fall of Jerusalem; Andrew Perriman posts on Resurrection, rapture and relevance. No thoughts of my own to share at... Read more

Greenflame shared a link to a page created by the Wabash Center, with useful materials on teaching students to critically evaluate web content. Read more

While Ken Pulliam’s posts on Adam and Eve in Genesis continue to appear, Joel Watts addresses the issue of prooftexting to justify hatred and unkind behavior and James Bradford Pate shares four reactions to Ken’s passing. I think Ken would be glad to know that he is still provoking bloggers and blog readers to have important and meaningful discussions. Also related to the Genesis creation stories are posts by Pete Enns, RJS, and Ed Babinski. Read more

Mark Goodacre pointed out that the latest SBL Teaching the Bible is available, and includes an article on Mary Magdalene by Jamie Clark-Soles. Read more

Loren Rosson reviews Dale Allison’s book Constructing Jesus. Here’s a quote from the conclusion of the review: Constructing Jesus pounds the last nail in the coffin of minimalism. I’ve often said that it’s better to be a mythicist than a minimalist — the former at least don’t pretend to be able to construct a historical Jesus on the assumption that our sources are so untrustworthy; the latter (read: Jesus Seminarians) cut their own throats. But it’s even wiser to be... Read more