Actually, I suppose today is more the day to celebrate NASA’s conception rather than its birth. But still, it is an important thing that occurred 50 years ago today. On this day in 1958, president Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the creation of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration into law. It is hard to imagine that a mere half a century ago so much that we now take for granted was just a dream… HT Skepchick Read more

The movie The Bucket List is a moving tale about two people who meet in the hospital, both having been diagnosed shortly before with terminal cancer, and given 6 months to maybe a year to live. I happened to watch the movie at just about the same time as I read and finished Christine Wicker’s book The Fall of the Evangelical Nation (New York: HarperOne, 2008). Since her book suggests that Evangelicalism in America is also a terminal case, I... Read more

I thought I had finished with the subject of Barack Obama, who for some is a Messianic figure, while for others he is the antichrist. Apparently not. The Times Online in the UK has a wonderful humorous telling of the ‘Obama Gospel’ in Biblical fashion, entitled “He ventured forth to bring light to the world“. You should definitely take a look. HT Scotteriology Read more

Does anyone know if the religious themes of science fiction films and TV shows is going to be the subject of a panel discussion or other organized event at any upcoming conventions? I’m just wondering. I’d also be interested to know of any articles, books, documentaries or other projects in the works on this subject, which you all know is of ongoing interest to me. I also overheard (sitting in CiCi’s Pizza recently) that Brent Spiner (a.k.a. Lt. Cmd. Data... Read more

Here’s a run down of my posts on Barack Obama so far: How I Know Barack Obama is NOT the AntichristTake The Barack Obama Blasphemy ChallengeLeft Behind With ObamaAround the Blogosphere (Barack Obama the Antichrist?)If Barack Obama is Anti-American, You Will Become a MillionaireObama Confesses to Being Hindu Muslim AntichristObama’s Faith…In Hanuman? I still get lots of visitors searching for Barack Obama and keywords like “antichrist”, “Nicolae Carpathia” and even “Gematria”, and so I thought I’d collect the links to... Read more

Over at the Awakening blog they’ve been discussing my post “Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical“. The discussion seems to have taken off, and some of you may want to peek in. If you enjoyed the original, you may want to check out the sequel! 🙂 Read more

In a recent comment, Peter Milloy drew my attention to the web site of the Minnesota Coconut Growers. It was created to illustrate that having a web presence proves nothing. I’ve only been to Minnesota once, but it was in winter, and it was enough to make me pretty certain that it’s climate is, shall we say, less than ideal for growing coconuts. But does that mean that we should simply fall back on common sense? No, that doesn’t work... Read more

“The idea that Evangelicals are taking over America is one of the greatest publicity scams in history“ (Christine Wicker, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church (New York: HarperOne) p.ix). Read more

I’m trying to make it an aim of my introductory Bible class not only to give students an opportunity to think for themselves, but also to help them learn how to grasp what the scholarly consensus on an issue is, if in fact there is one. In a time when the information that appears at the top of the list after a Google search is not necessarily the most reliable, and students seem to have trouble discovering those academic article... Read more

P. Z. Myers has apparently followed through on his threat to desecrate a Catholic communion wafer. He subjected the Qur’an and Richard Dawkins’ book to the same treatment, just to be fair. Ken Brown has coverage and reflection from a Christian perspective. I don’t have time to write more at the moment – but don’t let that stop you from discussing! Read more