Jim West was famous for many things, among which hatred for cats. And so now that he’s no longer blogging, we can post videos like the ones below without fear of retribution. First, there’s a cat that is being called “Ninja cat.” Good luck trying to prevent it from sneaking up on you! And here’s another cat that could successfully audition for the role of antichrist: Read more

The Panda’s Thumb reproduces a speech by James Downard which argues that it is not lack of intelligence that explains why people (religious believers, atheists, and probably everyone) believe things that aren’t supported by evidence or even have evidence against them. I had to skim parts of it, but hope to return to it, as it looks insightful. Anyone who has previously been a young-earth creationist will probably acknowledge that they weren’t stupid at the time, and that their change in viewpoint was not... Read more

Thanks to Jim Davila (whose own blog is also in the top 100 list) I just learned that Exploring Our Matrix is currently #23 on Technorati’s list of top religion blogs. There are many blogs on there I wasn’t familiar with, and so it looks like a list worth exploring further! There are a couple of familiar biblioblogs in the Top 10: Jesus Creed and Parchment and Pen. Thank you to all regular readers, visitors and those who have linked... Read more

If you’ve long wanted to start watching LOST, but didn’t think you could get caught up, a short video has been released that will get you up to speed in 8 minutes and 15 seconds. I still recommend watching the whole series if you can find the time. And LOST Untangled – which offered hilarious explanations and recaps of episodes in recent seasons. Read more

The polyvalent religious imagery and language was back again on Heroes tonight [SPOILERS in what follows]. The “family” of the carnival is explicitly likened to a cult at one point, the first of the two episodes had Biblical resonances (“Upon This Rock”), and the motif of water flowing and flowers blooming in the desert evokes Biblical imagery – not to mention it being for all intents and purposes “miraculous”, however much there may be an alleged “scientific” nature to the... Read more

NT Wrong (of Durham, North Carolina) has decided to produce another monthly Top 50 of biblioblogs. I came in at number 5. Read more

John Hobbins seems to think that we all should post our annual blog stats. I have no objection! In 2009, Exploring Our Matrix had 303,226 page loads, 232,554 unique visitors, and 50,017 returning visitors according to StatCounter. I don’t have any way of knowing which pages were the most popular for the year, but I am pretty certain it is my post on how to resolve the problem of a black screen after login when running Windows Vista. The fact that this remains one... Read more

There have been several good collections of science fiction short stories that touch on religious themes. They are all out of print except for the last one: Other Worlds, Other Gods; Adventures in Religious Science Fiction edited by Mayo Mohs. The New Awareness: Religion through science fiction edited by Patricia Warrick and Martin Harry Greenberg. Sacred Visions edited by Andrew M. Greeley and Michael Cassutt. Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Jack Dann. There’s also... Read more

Diglotting asks for input about which of three books on monotheism and Christology you would buy. I’m honored that I’m included alongside Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham. Please do chime in if this is a subject that interests you – I don’t particularly mind if you recommend my book or someone else’s, but I do think this is a great opportunity to discuss the merits of our different conclusion on this subject! Read more

It is nice to receive an e-mail that actually uses my name from a “Who’s Who” organization for a change (although still not as nice as not receiving any e-mail from such an organization at all). At least they are learning that if you want to persuade someone that they are being singled out for an honor rather than being scammed, you should personalize the e-mail. Nevertheless I remain skeptical of this latest e-mail – this time from Global Who’s... Read more