Jim West pointed out to me a web site called Fixed Earth, defending geocentrism from its opponents (who range from NASA to Madonna, apparently). It nicely illustrates that there are positions that are far more “literalistic” in their approach to the Bible, and thus far more ridiculous, but it is helpful to be able to ask those who claim they are interpreting the Bible literally why they don’t hold those sorts of views. Ultimately, longing to have a fixed earth... Read more

Thanks to The Panda’s Thumb for drawing attention to Stephen Webb’s review of Michael Behe’s latest book for the Christianity Today web site. I know Stephen, and thus hope that the comment I left (reproduced immediately below) is taken in the spirit of dialogue with which it is offered: Stephen, you know I like you as a person, but this review simply shows how easily Behe’s case can seem persuasive to someone who is outside of the fields of biochemistry,... Read more

Having had much interest in my solution to the black screen after login problem on Vista, I was encouraged to share what I know (even though it isn’t my own solution) about shutting off the requests for confirmation when running a program. The name of this annoying feature is the User Account Controls. All you need to do to switch it off is search for “User Account Controls” – then all you need is the willingness once you’ve done that... Read more

No, this post isn’t about Asherah – although that would be an interesting topic. No, this post follows up on an earlier one inspired by a student’s comment in class about whether God, as depicted in the Bible, is an abusive husband. Books like Hosea and Jeremiah that use the metaphor of Israel and Judah as unfaithful wives do not address the issue of whether that justifies various punishments by the husband. Anyway, the student in question has pursued the... Read more

There is an interesting post on IO9 about a man who has become a Christian and as a result is renouncing Dr. Who, categorizing it together with alcohol and materialism as things from which he has been delivered. I hope Mark Goodacre will have something to say about this! 🙂 Read more

Rather than continue to add links to my previous post about the expulsion of P. Z. Myers from a movie entitled Expelled! which complains about the “Darwinian establishment” allegedly expelling and censoring people because of their views, I’ve decided to post this follow-up. If you haven’t been following the issue, please do look into it. The irony is that those who cry that they are being persecuted and censored can, for once, be seen clearly to have been projecting their... Read more

Atheists are sure they are the winners either way: – If religion is a natural phenomenon, explicable in terms of neuroscience and biology, then it loses the supernatural element that has been its historic focus.– If religion is “unnatural”, then it seems to lie outside of the sphere of that which can be proven, or even discussed rationally. Religious believers are sure they are the winners either way: – If the appearance of life is scientifically inexplicable, then God must... Read more

Some interesting recent posts from around the blogosphere include: John Wilkins asks whether a Christian can accept natural selection as true. I left the following comment: I think the issue is complicated because there are(1) Christians for whom the Bible, understood in a particular way, trumps everything else, and so they reject natural selection;(2) Christians who hold in tension both traditional theistic ideas and natural selection; and(3) Christians who revise their thinking about God in light of natural selection and... Read more

I just read Nicholas Perrin’s Lost in Transmission, which I would certainly recommend to anyone interested in exploring how the personal story of a scholar relates to their scholarship, and any conservative Christian wanting to hear from an Evangelical scholar about the need to not simply dismiss historical investigation, academic inquiry, and other fields of knowledge relevant to understanding the Bible. There are points here and there that I would disagree with (for instance, when Perrin attributes far greater significance... Read more