At the top of the list must go Mark Goodacre’s post about the failure of the sites Early Christian Writings and Early Jewish Writings to rise from the dead. Fortunately the internet archive comes to the rescue, as usual. Tony Jones, Fred Anderson and Daryll Bock are among those who’ve reacted (in very different ways) to the Newsweek article on the Bible and gay marriage. John Pieret looks at the psychology behind Intelligent Design. John Wilkins blogs about finding a... Read more

Last night I finally watched X-Files 2: I Want To Believe. Particularly interesting were the issues of faith and doubt, which the two characters have symbolized throughout the series. And the symbolism continued to be explored as we found Mulder and Scully together and yet not married, unable to be together completely in spite of the love they share. How should faith and doubt relate to one another? I think the ideal would be to have, on the one hand,... Read more

Several interesting videos related to evolution and creationism have appeared. First, from right here in Indiana, the Secular Alliance of Indiana University visited the Creation Museum in Kentucky and made a video about it (HT AIG Busted): http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2479296&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1SAIU trip to the Creation Museum from Secular Alliance on Vimeo. Second, video footage of Richard Dawkins interviewing Father George Coyne, which was omitted from the documentary the former made, can be watched (in 7 parts) on YouTube (HT Darwiniana): Read more

“Why can a drunk man and a female exotic dancer get married in ten minutes in Las Vegas (and probably get it annulled within 24 hours), but two men who have been devoted to each other for several years can’t?” — From the description of the “Allow Gay Marriage” group on Facebook Read more

I am grateful to David Ker for the honor of being included on his list of the “Most Dangerous Bloggers of 2008“. I also like the particular warning label he chose for me: I’m not usually in a bad mood, am I? At any rate, I do hope that the rest of what he said is true – that my blog will make people think uncomfortable thoughts and ask uncomfortable questions. The best part, however, is the photo that shows... Read more

No, this isn’t about resources for the worship of Darwin. Neither the scientific community nor its opponents would have any interest in doing that. But there are some worship resources related to Darwin that have been made available by the Clergy Letter Project, to help congregations prepare to participate in Evolution Weekend 2009. 2009 marks both the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species as well as the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth. If your congregation... Read more

Jon Stewart has a pointed rather than amusing interview of Mike Huckabee on the subject of gay marriage (HT ERV). Here’s the URL in case the embedded video below doesn’t work. There’s also a post on a related subject at Notes From Off Center..cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url(‘http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png’) !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;} The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c Mike Huckabee Pt. 2 Barack Obama InterviewJohn McCain Interview Sarah Palin VideoFunny Election Video Read more

Stephen Chrisomalis and Mark Dingemanse both respond to the notion that our society shows evidence of a return to orality. It is certainly far more common now than it was a couple of decades ago for people to listen to a book in the car or on their ipod. But one doesn’t have to go back much further than that and weekly radio shows provided a similar sort of aural presentation of narrative. In short, we are certainly witnessing changes... Read more

In my last post I mentioned that Ray Bradbury’s “Christus Apollo” is but one of several poems or songs exploring the meaning of Christmas in the context of both Christian theology and the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Another example is Sydney Carter’s “Every Star Shall Sing A Carol“. Here’s an excerpt: Who can tell what other cradle,high above the milky way,still may rock the King of heavenon another Christmas day?God above, Man below,holy is the name I know… Every... Read more

As Christmas approaches, and in the heavens exoplanets are glimpsed by telescopes of tremendous power, and carbon dioxide detected in their far off atmospheres, it seems appropriate to draw attention to a less well-known work by science fiction author Ray Bradbury. His sonnet/cantata “Christus Apollo” is but one of several 20th century poems and carols reflecting on the meaning of Christmas (and Christianity more generally) in the context of an age of space exploration that was (and is) just beginning... Read more