Amused Muse blogs about Hedges, Hot Dish and Hogwash. Or about Expelled, in case the title isn’t self explanatory. Bad Idea Blog wonders if Expelled is running out of steam. Duane Smith comments on Einstein’s letter (see also Vridar). Larry Moran doesn’t care. Chuck Blanchard blogs about neuroscience and religion. Ancient Hebrew Poetry also touches on that same article, as well as the Vatican’s recent statement about extraterrestrials (on which see also A Freethinker From Oz and Pharyngula). Steve Martin... Read more

There are a few intriguing details about the arrest of Jesus that are given insufficient attention in scholarly as well as more popular studies. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor makes much of the fact that Jesus could have seen those coming to arrest him making their way with torches from Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley towards the place where he was on the Mount of Olives. Had he wanted to, he could have headed the other way, stopped in Bethany to pick up... Read more

(Or “Einstein the Atheist Wraps Anti-Evolutionists in Poison Ivy Flagella”) Those who claim evolution makes no predictions need to go roll around in poison ivy. For some, experiential learning works best. Mark Perrakh talks about what bacterial flagella really look like. Doppelganger asks if what is good for the Haeckel is also good for the Dembski. AIG Busted points to an NPR essay entitled “I am Evolution”. Open Parachute has been looking at the “Dissent from Darwinism” list. Is ERV... Read more

Metanexus has made a lengthy excerpt from Keith Ward’s latest book, Big Questions in Science and Religion, available online. Although it may be less than persuasive as an argument for theism, it certainly shows the limitations of materialism and the continued viability of religious worldviews. Read more

Here’s the latest from LOST’s bosses about the mysteries of the show (HT SF Signal). If it reveals nothing else, is shows Plenty of Nothing to be wrong about LOST. And if you don’t know what LOST’s J. J. Abrams’ latest project is, you definitely need to pay a visit to IO9. There’s also a review of Daniel Radosh’s book Rapture Ready! which surveys Christian popular culture. Sounds interesting! (HT Bob Patterson). In other news, the United Methodist Church has... Read more

The National Center for Science Education, a non-profit organization that defends the teaching of evolution in the public schools, seeks candidates for a position in its Public Information Project. Staff members in the Public Information Project provide advice and support to local activists faced with threats to evolution education in their communities. They also provide information on evolution, evolution education, and related issues to the general public, the press, and allied organizations, and contribute as needed to NCSE’s publications, both... Read more

After church today, someone asked me why we say that Jesus is “of the line of David” when Joseph was his step-father. It was an insightful question, one that inattentive readers of the Bible often fail to even raise. The irony, I replied, is that two incompatible genealogies for Jesus are preserved in precisely those Gospels that make Joseph’s lineage irrelevant. In both, it is explicitly Joseph’s lineage that is given, and never Mary’s. Once again, fundamentalist sometimes claim that... Read more

In last week’s episode, Ben seemed to be resigned to destiny having passed the baton from him to John Locke. But hopefully all fans have learned not to take anything Benjamin Linus says at face value. He might well be playing Locke, and still doing what Jacob wants. We’ll have to wait and see. If Locke is indeed “chosen” (Christian Shepherd said “That’s exactly right”), then by whom was he chosen? Anakin Skywalker was the “chosen one” – he was... Read more

The title of this post is not a complaint; it is merely an observation. No one confronts the representatives of another tradition with a contest to see which one’s deity will send fire from heaven as Elijah did. No Christian blogger claims that those who comment negatively will be struck with blindness for doing so, as apostles did. God is depicted in many parts of the Bible as knocking down city walls, parting seas and so on. Yet no Christian... Read more

As this season of LOST progresses, we are having more and more revealed to us about the nature of the show. It seems that it is, in essence, about two opposing forces for whom time is not an issue. The title of this post alludes to Star Trek: Enterprise, which had as a major theme the idea that there is a “temporal cold war” going on. If one side goes back in time, it can prevent the other civilization from... Read more