I’ve highlighted the wonderful resource that is http://www.archive.org/ before on this blog. But today I took a look to see what was there related not to my scholarly research interests, but to the music I love. I found a book about one of my favorite composers, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, as well as the score for one of his operas, Die Tote Stadt. Books written by Arnold Bax as well as the sheet music for his Second Sonata. Scores to works... Read more

In preparation for the release of my forthcoming books, I’ve set up an Amazon Connect Profile for myself. In addition to syndicating my blog’s RSS feed and highlighting books I’ve written, it also collects in one place reviews I’ve written. Particularly striking was seeing whether or not readers found my combined review of books Francisco Ayala and Michael Behe helpful. Readers of Ayala liked my review; readers of Behe did not. No real surprise there… Read more

Outside the Box has a post on the problem of death, disease, starvation, animals eating one another, and other such facets of the natural world that drive evolution. Can such a process be viewed as the work of a benevolent God? Here’s what I wrote in response to his post (I also left it as a comment on that blog): It is not simply evolution that poses this problem. The fact that countless organisms starved to death, were eaten by... Read more

Here’s a link to another flyer for The Burial of Jesus, highlighting some of what I think are the more interesting topics discussed and conclusions drawn in the book. I wasn’t sure if it sounded too “sensationalistic” for this flyer to be useful in promoting the book to academic libraries. I also learned that there are hundreds of people who hate the Papyrus font. They even have a Facebook group. Do many people reading this blog feel the same way?... Read more

My book The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith is close to being finalized, and hopefully will be available within a few weeks from BookSurge. Today I made a first attempt at making a flyer for use when promoting the book. I’d welcome feedback and suggestions about ways to improve it. You can download it from this link. I was glad to see that British television seems to be doing its part to keep interest in the subject alive until... Read more

Some fans of The 4400, like fans more generally, would have liked the show to go on forever, eventually dying a languishing and humiliating death as it runs out of steam. I just watched the end of season 4, the final season of The 4400, and I think it was a satisfying, appropriately dignified way for the show to end. In one sense, I prefer this end in its prime to its becoming a soap opera, or going on the... Read more

I’ve had requests from students in the past, asking me to make my powerpoint presentations available to them. But this is the first semester that I’m seriously considering doing so. I wonder whether other educators and students who read this blog have feelings about and experiences related to this subject that they might be willing to share. On the one hand, I’d love to have students listen and interact rather than frantically scribble down notes during class periods. On the... Read more

Today I saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars with my son, at a matinee showing. We were the only ones there. I am not sure whether that has to do with the nice weather or the at best lukewarm reviews the animated film has received, but I was surprised. The movie is movie certainly has as much of the adventure and depth of story that any other Star Wars film, special, animated series or other installment has had. It also... Read more

According to the majority of Christian fundamentalists, the Book of Revelation is about the future (perhaps distant, perhaps near and already begun). Our future, that is, and not merely the future from the perspective of the time in which it was written. Yet they appear not to have thought through the implications of treating the book in this way, or have ignored substantial parts of the Book of Revelation itself. If the fundamentalist approach (typically what is in technical terms... Read more