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

Although there has always been a fan base that has discussed science fiction worlds in detail, exploring the mythology, drawing connections between episodes/movies, and complaining about continuity errors, the present day provides far more opportunity to do that, with blogs, discussion boards, and countless other forums for interaction. IO9 has some speculations about connections between the Doctor Who episode The End Of Time and past episodes and characters from the show. One thing I learned in the process is that Richard... Read more

The DocArtz blog has a clearer picture of the LOST “Last Supper” image, as well as a careful discussion of its details and comparison both with Da Vinci’s most famous one as well as more recent imitations. Read more

Let’s start with Faithful Progressive’s post explaining that the personal God rejected by the “new atheists” isn’t the God he believes in. On a related topic, Martin LeBar has a post about Alister McGrath’s response to Richard Dawkins. Roland Boer thinks that John Loftus is still a theologian. John Loftus shared a thought experiment about the Gospels on his blog. I responded there that the scenario depicted was problematic. It is unfortunate that debates over the religious claims of conservative... Read more

It seems I've spent the day 'in the sidebar' today – writing comments and reading what others have written in comments here or on their own blogs. So let me encourage readers to check the Google Reader sidebar or the recent comments sidebar. I and others have written a lot of interesting things today – but this blog post isn't one of them! Read more

I tried to find a humorous headline for what is in fact a sad (or at least bittersweet) bit of breaking news. Apparently Jim West has decided to stop blogging. This has occurred before, if I’m not mistaken, and I suspect that if John Loftus gets too close to the number one slot, Jim may make a comeback to try and prevent that. In the mean time, others will seek to do the same… I do hope that, whether or... Read more

John Hobbins asks if I’m a pantheist. Well, am I? If I am, then so have been many mystics in the Abrahamic faiths, who have affirmed that there isn’t really any other reality than God or other place to be than within God. I prefer the term panentheism but it is admittedly a fine line. Joel and John seem to be having more constructive conversation – at last! IO9 asks about connections between LOST and FlashForward (something I’ve long wondered... Read more