Thanks to Steve Caruso for pointing out that the Mandaeans were in the news today, in an article covering their dwindling numbers in Iraq as persecution leads to their increased scattering to other parts of the world. Read more

There have been several posts in the blogosphere about conservative Christianity or the Religious Right. First, Art Boulet writes of the love of the fight in conservative circles. Here’s a sample: “i didn’t go to seminary so that i could get a ‘heresy hunter’ license and claim my spot among machen’s warrior children. i went to seminary because i want to positively contribute to the way christians think about the bible, about their god, and about how to live their... Read more

An article by Kerry Ann Rockquemore in Inside Higher Ed provides encouragement to academics and students when it comes to writing, but also makes the the best case I’ve heard for academic blogging, even without bringing blogging into the picture explicitly. Read more

Thanks to The Bible Critic for pointing out that Blogger now has a draft of a new feature: blog stats! Simply go to “Blogger in draft” at the address http://draft.blogger.com/. It is a new feature and so you won’t get stats before this month. But for the future this will be a fantastic addition to those whose blogs have “Blogspot” addresses. Thanks Blogger! Read more

Jen McCreight posted this map of the U.S. indicating an important point about science standards in each state (via Why Evolution Is True). I’m happy to say that Indiana is one of the few states that explicitly mentions evolution in its biology standards – but dismayed that most states have omitted all reference to this extremely important area of knowledge about the natural world and about ourselves. Read more

In a conversation with another biblioblogger who perpetuated some very popular and widespread misconceptions and falsehoods about evolution, I thought it best to recommend a book, since all too many people think that matters of science can be settled by what they remember from high school and “common sense.” Of course, it should go without saying that the latter doesn’t provide a useful guide, since so much that science has told us about the nature of the universe and its history has run counter to... Read more

The term “technological natives” gets used by professors from time to time, often in reference to the alleged gap between professors and students when it comes to technology. It is true that there are older professors who really have not kept up to date at all. One example that comes to mind is a philosophy adjunct professor I met several years ago who had a rotary phone. But the stereotype doesn’t work for all professors in a certain age bracket,... Read more

Take a look at this hilarious parody of the well-known recent Old Spice commercial, made by Harold B. Lee Library. Fantastic! I think I’ll show it to my classes when I talk about library use. HT Scott Pfitzinger on Facebook Read more

One characteristic that conservative Christians and mythicists share is that those who espouse these views seem prone to taking comfort in finding some lone scholar who agrees with them. Since I have focused quite a bit on mythicists lately, in the interest of fairness I will focus here on conservative Christians. For instance, in recent months I have regularly come across mentions of Richard Bauckham’s book claiming that eyewitnesses wrote or in some other way stand directly behind New Testament... Read more

Asherah, the long-neglected consort of ancient Israel’s male deity from way back when, has made a comeback in the cartoon Non Sequitur (HT Chris Brady): Read more