2018-10-28T21:53:54-04:00

Last updated on: October 28, 2018 at 9:53 pm   By

I will be speaking at Starbase Indy this year, and they have a fantastic program lined up. Here are my two contributions which are offered jointly with my colleague Ankur Gupta: Friday, November 23 Autonomous Computers and the Kobayashi Maru Astrophysics, 8pm – 9:15pm Tags: STEM, Presentation James McGrath, Ankur Gupta Kirk’s not the only one who dislikes no-win situations. The difficulty all humans face when it comes to no-win scenarios brings key aspects of human ethical reasoning into focus,... Read more

2018-10-28T20:05:50-04:00

Last updated on: October 28, 2018 at 8:05 pm   By

In a recent interview, Mandip Gill (the actress who plays Yaz on Doctor Who) was asked: “If you could go anywhere in the TARDIS, where would you go?” Her answer was, “I would go to the beginning of time and see how the world really was created!” That seemed worth mentioning, before proceeding to talk about this week’s episode of Doctor Who, “Arachnids in the UK.” The episode does not have nearly as prominent religious themes as another famous episode with... Read more

2018-10-28T08:35:23-04:00

Last updated on: October 28, 2018 at 8:35 am   By

I’ve been seeing lots of mentions of Stephen Hawking’s posthumously-published book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, and thought I would comment. Getting particular attention is Hawking’s more direct statement of his atheism in comparison with earlier publications. Hemant Mehta and Rob Picheta shared brief quotations: We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is that there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a... Read more

2018-10-18T13:23:05-04:00

Last updated on: October 18, 2018 at 1:23 pm   By

Two things became clear as I taught my class about parables and the historical Jesus this semester. One is that my botanical knowledge is limited. OK, I knew that. But I didn’t grasp the full implications of it, or its relevance to what I teach, until students drew my attention to mustard trees. The Greek word used in the Gospels, σίναπι, seems to clearly refer to the plant that is essentially a weed (as I recall John Dominic Crossan highlighting... Read more

2018-10-25T23:23:55-04:00

Last updated on: October 25, 2018 at 11:23 pm   By

Yesterday evening I had the chance to meet two Patheos bloggers in person for the first time – on the Butler University campus, no less! I have found that meeting people in person that one feels connected with via social media often feels like it is renewing rather than beginning an acquaintance, which is (I think) a testament to the capacity of technology to forge meaningful connections between human beings – when we want it to and allow it to,... Read more

2018-10-17T21:12:09-04:00

Last updated on: October 17, 2018 at 9:12 pm   By

It is time to figure out when and where the bloggers’ gathering at this year’s joint meeting of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature in Denver should occur. It seems as though our schedules are fuller and fuller even into the evenings, and I know that some of those who’d wish to attend are graduate students and independent scholars without funding for food and beverages (or even for the cost of being at the conference). And... Read more

2018-10-23T13:43:35-04:00

Last updated on: October 23, 2018 at 1:43 pm   By

New Testament scholar Anthony Le Donne visited the campus of Butler University recently to make a guest appearance in my class on the historical Jesus, focusing on the question of whether Jesus was married. We also sat down to record an episode for the ReligionProf Podcast – and by the end of the usual time limit on an episode, we found we weren’t yet done, and so we recorded a second episode as well! You’ll have to wait until next... Read more

2018-10-17T20:33:48-04:00

Last updated on: October 17, 2018 at 8:33 pm   By

A call for papers on a topic of interest, in a highly appealing venue: CFP: SCIENCE FICTION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2019 Friday, June 21 – Monday, June 24, 2019 Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii Conference Theme: Facing the Future, Facing the Past: Colonialism, Inidigeneity, and SF Keynote Speaker: Nalo Hopkinson The Science Fiction Research Association invites proposals for its 2019 annual conference, to be held on the campus of Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii. “I ka wā mua, ka wā ma... Read more

2018-10-21T22:48:53-04:00

Last updated on: October 21, 2018 at 10:48 pm   By

The episode of Doctor Who, “Rosa,” in which the Doctor and companions meet Rosa Parks in Montgomery Alabama in 1955, certainly highlights the appalling character of American history and culture, none of which is entirely free from the taint of racism. It is interesting not least because Doctor Who has for the most part shied away from this common time travel trope focused on one person in one moment whose experience needs to unfold as the history books foretold. To... Read more

2018-10-22T11:45:34-04:00

Last updated on: October 22, 2018 at 11:45 am   By

I find myself really challenged by something Mike Duncan wrote on his blog Bad Rhetoric recently, noting the number of university-educated people who voted for Donald Trump. He writes: I used to think my teaching was formative of critical thinking and ethics and built at least a motte and bailey defense against the worst excesses. Writing needed teaching to all comers as a communicative civil right. All that seems dangerously stupid now. Increased writing skill does not magically lead to... Read more

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