I want to highlight a new blog created by a librarian at Butler University, Brad Matthies, who is also a friend of mine. The title is “Black Belt Librarian”. It should warn you, before you go over there and start stirring up trouble, that the black belt is no mere metaphor. The Black Belt Librarian has already taken the time to blog about our recent discussion on campus about The Burial of Jesus, as well as the “big questions” that... Read more

If you are growing tired of attack ads as election day draws near, there is only one remedy: watch amusing attack ads that don’t feature any of the current presidential candidates, but instead feature famous philosophers. Here are two that a colleague in philosophy brought to my attention: Kant Attack Ad Kierkegaard in ’08 Read more

I received a question from someone who is reading my book, asking the following: I’m just curious if you’ve read two articles that argue against McCane’s thesis of a dishonorable burial. William Lane Craig (“Was Jesus Buried in Shame: Reflections on B. McCane’s Proposal,” Expository Times, 115, 2004, 404-409 ) argues against McCane directly, and Jodi Magness (“Ossuaries and the Burials of Jesus and James” JBL, 124, 2005) 121-54 argues that if Jesus was buried in a criminal burial area... Read more

Stephen Mathesen discusses how evolution can inspire faith. Chet Raymo asks what the heavens proclaim. The contrast between the two is striking. Jesus Creed discusses original sin and Adam. There’s a video on YouTube about “stupid design” (HT Daniel Florien). Paleojudaica highlights an article about Jewish mysticism. SF Gospel argues that Heroes is misnamed. Ken Schenck blogs about Scripture and money. Ben Myers reviews Christ, History and Apocalyptic. NT Wrong has a bootleg (shhhh!) recording of a debate about theodicy... Read more

Sojourners magazine has two pieces highlighting works of science fiction that explore religious themes: “This World and the Next” and “Spiritually-Inflected Science Fiction“. In addition, Paul Levinson has his latest post up about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I love the way the show is exploring the parallels between programming an artificial intelligence and raising a child. A terminator from the future seems to be trying to develop its own Skynet, presumably before the original one can be developed. I... Read more

This chapter is subtitled “Can religious experience count as evidence?” and provides an interesting intersection between Ward’s book and my own recent one, The Burial of Jesus. Ward begins his chapter by writing “In most religions, there is an important place for experience. In fact, if there were no distinctively religious experiences, it is doubtful if religions would exist” (p.162). My own view about Easter (since there has been some confusion about it around the web) is as follows. First,... Read more

It has been a while since I’ve posted about scam e-mails, but a couple have made it past my spam filter in recent days, and so I thought it might be worth warning the gullible out there. If you receive either of these, please don’t be stupid enough to think that some random individual has singled you out to give a large sum of money to. It is a scam to get your personal information, and perhaps more. Below are... Read more

Here’s the first trailer previewing season 5 of LOST: HT IO9 Read more

There are two articles in Biblical Archaeology Review about Israelite origins by Anson Rainey: “Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?” and “Shasu or Habiru: Who Were the Early Israelites?” Since the Israelites, according to the Bible, are supposed to have spent time in Egypt, it is appropriate to be able to point to a number of posts about Egypt, too. Ferrell Jenkins has a post on temples along the Nile. Sepher Ha-Bloggadah is up to the first... Read more

The Burial of Jesus (and a recent review of it) have been mentioned on Lingamish. Just for clarification, the post there says: “his body later dumped in a common grave” – I think that something like this is what happened. “where the disciples then retrieved it and gave it a proper burial” – I am persuaded that the disciples wanted to do this but am also persuaded that they were unable to. Had they been able to, I think they... Read more