We have a purple tree in our yard. I would love to know what sort of tree it is. But I do know I find it beautiful. Is one sort of knowledge not lacking something without the other to complement it? Which is more important, if either? Or are both not important? On a comment to a recent post of mine, someone said that theologians “dance around the truth”. I liked the phrase, and asked whether dance, and art, and... Read more

In case anyone was wondering, the piece Benjamin Linus was playing on LOST (in the episode “The Shape Of Things To Come“) was Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C# minor. It is a wonderful piece, which I once upon a time could just about make it through from beginning to end. The middle section is challenging to play, never mind to play with proper emphasis on the four descending tones so as to bring them out above the rest of the frantic... Read more

Last night’s episode of LOST? AMAZING! Scientist, Interrupted shares decisive considerations why Noah’s flood can’t account for fossil footprints. Chuck Blanchard discusses Christianity and evolution. Experimental theology discusses current intellectual debates. Iyov suggests that Nancy Pelosi got the Bible right even though she got it wrong. Internet Monk explains why saying you “simply believe the Bible” should earn you a slap. Find and You Shall Seek discusses the Ehrman-Wright conversation. In the Open Spaces discusses God on Battlestar Galactica. IO9... Read more

Tonight’s return of LOST was absolutely amazing, possibly the best episode yet in the whole series in some ways. Things that were still speculation are now certain. Many more mysteries are set before us. Ben teleports to the Sahara Desert. He is wearing a Dharma Initiative jacket and retches, so whatever the method of travelling through time and space, it affects one. He had been wounded on the arm. When locals find him, Ben addresses them in English, then Arabic,... Read more

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, used a “Biblical quotation” to support an argument. The hitch? The words, although eloquent and thought-provoking, simply aren’t from the Bible. What she claimed is found in the Bible is: ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.’ Was this a paraphrase that inadvertently got turned into a quotation? Something read elsewhere and attributed to the... Read more

First, don’t forget: LOST returns tonight at a new time, 10 pm! A recent article on geomagnetism in New Scientist is interesting in view of the place geomagnetism has on the show. New Scientist also shares pictures from the Hubble telescope of merging galaxies. Now, on to other news. There is information about a debate between Bart Ehrman and N. T. Wright about theodicy on the N. T. Wrong blog. John Pieret asks why the Institute for Creation Research has... Read more

Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Edward Humes is an extraordinary book, allowing the reader to participate in the full details of the Dover Pennsylvania trial concerning Intelligent Design in a way that it seems likely that few even of those actually present would have been able to. The wealth of detail is impressive, and yet the narrative keeps the reader’s interest as well as any great suspense novel – and this even though... Read more

An interesting convergence has occurred. My classes on the Bible will be having a discussion of the Bible and homosexuality on Friday. The same day is set aside as a day of silence, to commemorate the silence that many gays and lesbians impose upon themselves in order to avoid harassment or worse. I find this also to pose something of a conundrum. On a day set aside to symbolically be silent, I have my classes that day dedicated to speaking... Read more

Today we got up to the Book of Revelation in my class on the Bible. One student in his presentation mentioned the amusing argument at Rusty Brain identifying George Bush as the antichrist. The relevant section reads: George W. Bush = 666 in code. Here’s scientific proof. Take each letter of the alphabet and assign it a number, starting with A=1. Add up the letters of Dubya’s name, which totals 130. Now multiply 130 x 5.123076923076923, which is the average... Read more

Sandwalk points out a YouTube video with Ben Stein making statements about science that are not even wrong, they are wrong-headed. What’s the appropriate way to characterize such nonsense? On the one hand, I once held young-earth creationist views, and I would like to believe that it wasn’t the case that I was simply stupid. But I was stupid to spout nonsense about a subject I knew too little about. Perhaps Encyclopedia Brittanica’s offer will help. They are offering free... Read more