I’m grateful to Jim West for pointing out this amusing new book: How to Profit From the Coming Rapture: Getting Ahead When You’re Left Behind. Jim seems not to have gotten the joke, though. He also has a post/link on press coverage of Biblical archaeology. Mark Goodacre shares his conference paper on dating New Testament sources. NT Wrong shares a video with Bart Ehrman on the Bible and suffering. Ken Schenck continues his series on the antichrist. Scotteriology continues surveying... Read more

I’ve been tagged with a meme by the Secundum Artem blog, the rules of which are as follows: 1. Link to the person who tagged you.2. Post the rules on your blog.3. Write six random things about yourself.4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. So here are six random facts... Read more

It has been a while since my last entry in this series on Keith Ward’s book The Big Questions in Science and Religion. Chapter 8 looks at attempts to explain morality, and religious beliefs, in evolutionary terms. His short answer is that, unless one accepts a purely reductionistic approach, then we cannot. We may be able to explain certain instincts and inclinations in evolutionary terms, but as long as we have some notion of free will, then evolutionary biology will... Read more

Ken Schenck has begun a series on the antichrist over at Quadrilateral Thoughts. Here’s a sample from today’s post: In short, those who relate these parts of Revelation to contemporary events have ended up looking stupid every single time thus far. Just think of all the people who have speculated about who the Antichrist will be thus far. Just think of all the movements and cults that have started off of particular prophetic interpretations. Every last one of them has... Read more

A student sent me the link to the official web site of the president elect, Barack Obama, outlining the vision for his and Joe Biden’s administration. It is definitely worth a look. The site has the catchy title Change.gov. Read more

My brethren, stop being so stupid. Stop forwarding half-cocked emails based on bad logic and spite. The British journalist about choked on his microphone when the seemingly intelligent general manager of an ethanol plant in Missouri started talking about how he could never vote for Obama because he’s scared and in Revelation 13 it says that an olive skinned Muslim will trigger the Armageddon. We don’t just look like a bunch of kooks. We are a bunch of kooks. I’d... Read more

I am delighted that Barack Obama has been elected the next president of the United States. I am proud of our nation and am thrilled by what Obama’s election represents. And yet I remain troubled, not by his victory, but by the way the language used to speak about it and about him indicates that problematic notions of race continue to be alive and well in this country. To begin with, it seems that very few people are asking “Why... Read more

I thought that perhaps after the election, the number of visitors to my blog who arrive here via search engines, searching for keywords like “Obama” and “Revelation 13” and “antichrist” would decrease and eventually stop. At the moment, it seems that there is, if anything, an increase. If you’re interested in the Book of Revelation, you need to understand that it is first and foremost a critique of the Roman Empire in the author’s time. It uses Gematria to indicate... Read more

As I prepared to write a post congratulating president Barack Obama, and Indiana, the state I live in, for its role, John McCain’s concession speech came on TV. McCain spoke of his genuine admiration for Obama, and eloquently articulated the historic significance of this moment in our nation’s history. I hope that McCain’s supporters will join him in his offer of goodwill as he asked them to, and in his recognition that what matters is working together to create an... Read more

The Christian Coalition is telling people to “vote the Bible” (HT Notes From Off Center). Unfortunately, they appear not to have read it. All the Bible has to say specifically and unambiguously on that subject is to mandate abortion in cases of infidelity (Numbers 5:11-31). This is not to say that abortion should not be an issue for Christians, but if one is concerned to emphasize things that are emphasized in the Bible, then social justice and the mistreatment of... Read more