A religion major who is soon to graduate needed one more credit for this semester and has decided to meet it by doing an independent study…on LOST and religion! There are so many ideas we’ve both had, and so many possibilities. One interesting suggestion is to investigate whether the light-dark polarity that is part of LOST’s mythology and symbolism is understood in a good-vs.-evil, Zoroastrian sort of way, or in a Yin-and-Yang, Taoist, balance sort of way. I suspect that... Read more

Proponents of Intelligent Design make much of alleged instances of “irreducible complexity”. A colleague drew to my attention an article that deals with the evidence that such complexity is indeed “reducible.” It has the catchy title “The reducible complexity of a mitochondrial molecular machine.” Those interested in this subject will want to take a look. Read more

Among the books available in limited preview via Google Books is E. S. Drower’s translation of two Mandaean priestly commentaries, known as the “Great First World” and the “Lesser First World”. I don’t own a copy of Drower’s translation (which is what is on Google Books), but I am delighted to be the owner of the facsimile of the text that was published together with Drower’s translation. It is in the form of two small scrolls, packaged for safekeeping in... Read more

I recently mentioned that two ways of translating the Hebrew verbs in Genesis 2:19 might, in theory, both be legitimate. A comment on that post raised the question whether one of them was in fact not justifiable: …as I see it, the verb in question is a wayyiqtol. And the wayyiqtol is *never* (to my experience and understanding) used for information off of the main, foregrounded timeline: that is, it is a *sequential* past tense verb form, and would not... Read more

As others have already pointed out, Mark Goodacre will be pioneering in the world of technology and teaching, as he always does, this time by having online office hours. Here’s the full story: Mark Goodacre at NT Blog has agreed to hold live, online “office hours” this Friday, Sept. 18, at noon EDT on Duke’s Ustream page. Professor Goodacre will be giving his take on “the New Testament in the news” – and responding to questions from anyone who submits... Read more

Chris Brady has offered yet another post on creation in Genesis, and yet another amusing cartoon related to it as well. Read more

Two of my colleagues at Butler University are part of a band called Nightjar. You can listen to them here. One of them also used to be in a band called Chuckanut Drive, which you can listen to on YouTube: Not really my sort of music, to be honest, but if I had a band and a colleague had a blog, I’d hope to get a mention! Read more

That’s the title of a new piece on Beliefnet about Star Wars and Hinduism. Read more

Gumby the Cat has returned to blogging with a delightful extended analogy between his experience with Christianity and buying a car. I’ve noted previously the analogy Carl Sagan made between buying a used car and choosing a religion. I highly recommend reading Gumby’s post, and I also strongly advise readers to “look under the hood” of your religion. Although sometimes an awareness of the mechanics of something can seem to detract from the magic of experiencing the whole, and our... Read more

I’m teaching again today. The topic was Genesis (the book, not the band, although I have been practicing the keyboard solo from Cinema Show) with particular focus on the creation stories. One particular point I’ve emphasized more in recent years at this point in the class is the role of translations in interpreting the text for us. If one reads Genesis 2:18-19 in the NRSV, it says: Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should... Read more