Good news! My book The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith is now available for purchase at amazon.com. I do hope that some of my regular readers will read it, and will let me know what they think (whether here or at the blog I’ve created specifically for the book). But I’d be particularly grateful if you could find the time to recommend the book for purchase by your local university, seminary and/or public libraries. If they ask for a... Read more

Evolving Thoughts shared this wonderful clip under the heading “Cleesing the God Gene“: Elsewhere around the blogosphere, New Scientist has an article on the possibility that evolution may have preceded life. Undeception has an interesting post on “First Things and Last Things“. And Peter Rollins talks about our desire for a master we can dominate. Read more

My book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, forthcoming from University of Illinois Press in March of 2009, is now available for pre-order on amazon.com. A page has also been created for The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith and so I expect to be able to announce that it is available for purchase soon. Presumably this means that you can go ahead and start recommending one or both of these books to your local... Read more

Today I received my proof copy of The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith. After soliciting some feedback on how the final version looks (I can’t be objective about this, obviously), I gave my approval for the book to become available for purchase. It should be available within a week or so. I’ll let you know! Read more

Having provided round-ups of my blogging on Intelligent Design and on LOST, I thought I’d follow up with a collection of my posts on creationism. There is some overlap with the subject of Intelligent Design, but enough distinction (and enough separate posts) to make it seem worth doing. I’ve put serious ones, and in particular ones showing the problems with the way young-earth creationists misuse Biblical texts, towards the beginning. Creationism’s Cartoon PhysicsTeaching the Genesis Creation StoriesEvidence and Faith: The... Read more

“Religious beliefs cannot remain what they were before the rise of modern science any more than ancient scientific beliefs can. It would be absurd to insist that ancient religious beliefs should remain unchanged when our whole view of the universe has changed radically” (Keith Ward, The Big Questions in Science and Religion (West Conshohocken: Templeton Foundation Press, 2008) p.4). Read more

The Bad Astronomy blog over at the Discover magazine web site mentions me and links to my post on “Evolution and Indoctrination“. To think that if Jim West hadn’t posted what he did, none of this might have happened… Read more

The Dharma Wants You site is still recruiting for the Dharma Initative. To register you first take a test. There is someone talking in places in a language I don’t understand. Presumably there are clues to be found on the site. One thing you can do after registering is create your own quiz. Click here to take the one I created. Read more

Jesus Creed reflects on apostasy from orthodoxy. Metacatholic points out a Christian reconstructionist web site about Palin. Debunking Christianity has a game theory approach to Genesis 3. It is problematic, but also interesting, and certainly worth a look. For a rabbinic approach, check out the wonderfully-named Sefer Ha-Bloggadah. As I wait for my book to become available, I’m glad that documentaries and blogs are keeping interest in the burial of Jesus alive. Sandwalk asks whether science should speak to faith. Read more