According to the ARAM Society’s web site, their next conference on the Mandaeans will be at the University of Stockholm in Sweden, in April 2012. Some of the information there is simply copied and pasted from the last conference in Oxford, and the date of that conference changed from that originally scheduled, so one shouldn’t make hard and fast plans at this stage. Nevertheless it is good to see that the next conference is “in the works” and I think Sweden... Read more

Having spent so much time blogging about mythicism, I felt I would be remiss (or is that remyth?) if I were not to share a few last links that have come to my attention. Joseph Hoffmann recently touched once again on the existence of Jesus and the Jesus Project. And although the Christian CADRE blog is clearly apologetic in its aims, in their recent post on this topic they seem to be more honest and accurate about the relevant sources and the... Read more

Somehow I missed that Lost Untangled had returned. Here’s the latest one, for the episode “The Lighthouse”: Read more

Having mentioned creationism and game in the same post, I was struck to come across this comic strip (shared at Open Parachute) which brings the two together: Read more

Just a couple of links and a couple of thoughts. First, two posts from around the blogosphere related to creationism. First, Richard Hoppe has a post on creationism as science-stopper. Second, Nick Norelli notes dubious claims in a forthcoming study Bible. On the topic of LOST, I wonder whether anyone has explored possible connections between the show and either Theodore Sturgeon’s short story “Dazed” or the concept of “game” in Scientology. Read more

Tomorrow in my religion and sci-fi class one topic we’ll be talking about is science fiction connected with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The most famous example is probably the original Battlestar Galactica (with Orson Scott Card a close second). As I noticed the comment of the person who shared the video above (from the episode “War of the Gods”), I realized that a young person today would watch it and wonder why the crew of... Read more

Steve Caruso just blogged about this announcement (which has apparently already gone out on the Hugoye list-serv, but hasn’t reached those of us who get e-mails once a day as a digest): The First Hugoye Symposium ܥܐܕܐ ܕܣ̈ܝܡܐ ܣܘܪ̈ܝܝܐ: ܐܘܪܚܐ ܐܪܝܟܬܐ ܡܢ ܒ̈ܬܝ ܐܪ̈ܟܐ ܠܢܘܠܐ Libraries in the Syriac Tradition May 20, 2010 at the Beth Mardutho Research Library, Piscataway, N.J. Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute will hold its First Hugoye Symposium on May 20, 2010 to celebrate the opening... Read more

On the theme of research before the internet era, Daniel Kirk shared this cartoon: Read more

A friend and colleague sent me a link to this useful web page. It provides a convenient interactive sliding scale that allows you to figure out whether a work is (or is likely to still be) under copyright. Read more