With a major new project comes the possibility of less blogging. As I contemplated this recently, I wondered whether nowadays, when most of us read blogs in a feed reader of some sort, there is any point in announcing a blog hiatus. What are readers’ opinions about that? As I thought about possibly announcing a lull in blogging, I immediately started thinking of disclaimers. “I may still share links to things other people have posted.” “I still have some books... Read more

Steve Caruso, who will be part of the Mandaean Book of John project, has chimed in about it on his own blog, and I wanted to echo his words about it: “This is a big deal.” I’m sharing the above Mandaic text from Steve’s blog (the Mandaic title of the Book of John, drashia d-Iahia), which he posted using a script he developed himself, because it provides a great illustration of why he’s such a valuable part of the project! Read more

The NEH has announced that it will be funding a grant proposal I wrote for a project to translate the Mandaean Book of John into English. Over the next two years, the focus will be on producing a typed eclectic Mandaic text using the available manuscript evidence, and an English translation. The longer-term goal is to publish the Mandaic text and English translation in a volume that also includes commentary. My principal collaborator on the project is Dr. Charles Häberl... Read more

“If religion teaches us atheists one thing, it should be this: to be skeptical of claims that we want to believe. Some atheists seem to have fallen into the trap of believing in a pagan origin for Christianity because it suits their agenda, rather than on the basis of the evidence. We should instead be careful about all claims, until they are established on the basis of actual data and methodical scholarship.”  — Robert Oerter, “How To Become God” from the... Read more

Anna Blanch of the blog Goannatree has a post on critical thinking, complete with diagrams of key elements. Here’s a sample: Read more

Too many interesting things today to fit in the sidebar, and so here are links to posts on other blogs that deserve attention: Scotteriology, Verily Verily, The Church of Jesus Christ, Friendly Atheist, Pharyngula and others mention that the “Touchdown Jesus” statue has either been destroyed by the forces of nature, or been tackled by some deity or other. Experimental Theology reflects on the ethics of smileys. Jim Davila discusses Prince Charles’ use of canonical and extracanonical Gnostic texts in advocating... Read more

There’s a malicious application spreading around Facebook at the moment. I first encountered it on Jim Davila’s Facebook feed, where it said: Jim likes :|:| 101 Hottest Women in the World 😀 :|:| on :|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:| :|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:| :|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|… Jim’s blog and Facebook had already informed us that Jim had travelled from St. Andrews to California, and so (knowing Jim’s sense of humor) I expected to find some sort of joke about the heat. And so being a fan of Jim’s sense... Read more

From PHD Comics HT Marc Cortez and Goannatree Read more

Today in church the preacher told the following story, which is not a true story but is a good joke: Barbara Walters of 20/20 did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked 5 paces behind their husbands. She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Ms. Walters’ vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now... Read more