This cartoon by NakedPastor touched on one of my pet peeves. It really bothers me when people talk about their good fortune in terms of God being good to them – with the implication that God has been not so good to the person who has not recovered from the illness, who was in an accident rather than a near miss, who is still trying to find a job, or whatever else. Read more

As many of you know, today has been declared “Star Wars Day” because “May the Fourth” sounds like “May the Force.” So happy Star Wars Day to all who celebrate it – and to all who need no special day in order to celebrate Star Wars. Read more

I am participating this summer in a workshop on technology and teaching, and for some of what I am interested in exploring/creating, Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash would have been a natural tool to use to develop interactive material. But Apple seems to be refusing to make devices that support Flash, and even if that doesn’t impact the use of Flash, it certainly would prevent students from using a Flash-based web site or other interactive materials if they are Mac users. And so... Read more

My review of Bogdan Gabriel Bucur, Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2009) has just appeared in Review of Biblical Literature. Read more

“The worldwide flood described in Genesis 6-9 is not historical, but rather a combination of at least two flood stories, both of which descended from earlier Mesopotamian flood narratives. Note that this does not mean all of the claims made in the Bible are false (or true for that matter); I am dealing here only with the biblical stories of the flood. (Also understand that the “slippery slope” claim of “all of the Bible is true or none of it... Read more

Here’s another example of how a literal reading of the English Bible is relevant to the question of homosexuality and salvation, considered from a conservative Christian viewpoint. The King James Version of Luke 17:34-35 reads: I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Pretty clear, isn’t it? Roughly... Read more

From a Christian perspective, the sort of false teaching propagated by the likes of Ken Ham, as seen for instance in the video below (HT Unreasonable Faith), deserves to be called evil. Christians have a strong sense that they are supposed to be going against the flow, that they need to dare to be different, that they need to stand up for their faith even if it means ridicule or persecution. What Ken Ham and others like him have done... Read more

I wanted to mention it in my last post about 2012, but it seemed to be a separate issue and thus I decided to make it a separate post. But I feel like I have to say something about the fact that this movie, which adopts a stance as though it is forward-looking, embracing rational scientific solutions as the best path towards humanity’s future survival (albeit with the necessary funding from the private sector to make it possible). How, in this... Read more

I just finished watching the movie 2012, which uses religious imagery and ideas in interesting ways. On the one hand, there is a strong anti-religious message. It is as though every time someone prays in the movie, their death is ensured to follow shortly thereafter. Now it may be fair to poke fun at those who would choose prayer rather than science when facing a disaster of which science is the prophet predicting it. But 2012 seems to go further, for instance... Read more

Some performers that will be familiar to you playing the 3rd movement of Seitz’ Violin Concerto No.5 from Suzuki book 4. Read more