Jay (in a comment on a recent post) used the term “contextectomy” and I liked it so much that I wanted to share it with a wider audience. I am not sure if it is original to him (I have a vague sense that I may have heard it used before, but I may be thinking of a different “-ectomy”), but it really is a great word that says a lot succinctly. Lest I perform a “contextectomy” on the term... Read more

I’ve been asked more than once recently whether I think LOST will come to a satisfying conclusion. Below are my thoughts, more or less as I jotted them down in an e-mail yesterday to E! journalist Leslie Gornstein, who quotes me in her article “Can the Lost Finale Satisfy the Fans?” The TV show LOST still has the potential to satisfy fans – although as much may depend on what fans are hoping for as the story the writers tell. After... Read more

Do any readers know of reports or other publications which look at trends in the academic study of religion? I’m particularly interested in finding out if there are trends (whether upwards or downwards) in the number of students majoring or minoring in religion at universities without religious affiliation. Thanks in advance for your input! Read more

Here’s LOST Untangled: “What They Died For” http://a.abc.com/media/_global/swf/embed/2.6.3/SFP_Walt.swf And here’s the latest LOST Slapdown, featuring auditions for the part of the smoke monster. Read more

An alternate ending to LOST as revealed on Lopez Tonight: Read more

I have received from a reliable source a picture of what I believe really and truly is the final moment of LOST. If you do not like spoilers, do not read further. The picture below is likely to genuinely be the final frame ever of LOST, the real thing, the way the last episode of the series will end. And I am sure some may feel that the information it provides is something they simply do not want to know,... Read more

In response to threats and acts of violence by extremists, a movement has gotten underway which has led to a number of “draw Muhammad” events, and eventually the culminating “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” which has been designated as today, May 20th, 2010. I’ve chosen to show my support for this protest against religious violence, intolerance, and opposition to freedom. But I think more significant than any picture I might draw is this one (shared by Horace Jeffery Hodges): This is... Read more

From George Kiraz via the Hugoye List-serv: To celebrate the grand opening of its library, Beth Mardutho is holding a symposium on Libraries in the Syriac Tradition. Thanks to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Rutgers University, you can attend this symposium online: Where: http://rutgersdceo.na6.acrobat.com/hugoye/ When: 05/20/2010 9:15 AM – 6:00 PM Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US and Canada) Program: Click Here (PDF File) On May 20, around 9:15 AM EST, click on the above link. (You can also... Read more

The Clever Badger has a post on Ken Ham’s post which was a reaction (it can’t be called a response) to criticisms I had offered of Ken Ham and of young-earth creationism in general. Jay also adds to and supplements the criticisms I offered. From Jay’s blog I found a link to another post about Ham’s failure to respond to my criticisms, this one at The Adventures of Skippy the Skeptic. Also related is the post at a time to rend about Answers in Genesis’... Read more

As “The End” of LOST draws near we are still wondering what the parallel universe is about. In thinking about this, we should not forget that the “flashes sideways” we have seen occur soon after Oceanic 815 landing, and so what happens in the years that follow may be very important. But it seems to me that one thing that the parallel universe may do is show Jacob to have been wrong. His mother was wrong about what happens if the island... Read more