Since I started using Google Reader, I have tended to add new blogs of interest to my feeds there, without in most instances adding them to my blogroll. The result is that my blogroll is rather out of date. If you know I read your blog (or think I should if I don’t), and your blog is not on my blogroll, please leave a comment here and I’ll probably add yours. If you notice any that are up there which... Read more

Minutes ago I received a letter, delivered especially to my office, letting me know that the Butler Board of Trustees has approved the recommendation that I be granted tenure and promotion to associate professor. This calls for a size of font I have not used before on this blog… WOO HOO!!! 🙂 Read more

Michael Halcomb and I have decided to have a ‘blogversation’ (or is it a ‘bloggersation’?) about Christianity, salvation, pluralism and other subjects that are of interest to both of us and about which we seem to disagree. We are going to try doing it in ‘blog-to-blog’ form, like the ‘wall to wall’ feature on Facebook. So when Michael replies to this post, I will post a link to his reply at then end of this post, as well as at... Read more

Someone hacked Dr. Jim West’s blog, and so it is a sad day in the blogosphere for all who value intelligent discussion of serious issues related to theology and the Bible. But there is happy news: he seems willing to start over! [UPDATE: Bob MacDonald at Sufficiency has made an archived version of the posts from Jim’s old blog available here. Thanks Bob!] I’m involved in a continuing discussion of salvation and different religions at Pisteuomen. Check it out! In... Read more

When the moon moves across the face of the sunWe see it in ways we could not otherwiseWe see other things blotted from view by its brilliance.When the moon darkens and turns redWe become aware of the shadow we cast.When the possibility of proof becomes elusiveThe importance of story comes into focus.When certainty slips awayThe question of meaning in the present takes center stage. We do not exist forever in eclipsesThey come and go, a fascinating momentary breakfrom the ordinary,... Read more

“The question about which story is truer is not equivalent to which story is more factual, because we weave the facts and the stories in the same cloth, like warp and weft on a loom” (Philip Hefner, Technology and Human Becoming (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003) p.69). Read more

Some of you may have noticed that from time to time I turn words here and there throughout a post into links to all sorts of silly pages around the web. Earlier today, in doing that, I unintentionally gave the impression that I was connecting that page with someone I was disagreeing with. I apologize for that, and will be more careful about such links in the future – it was added by going back through the post and finding... Read more

Two recent posts nicely illustrate how creationists claim to be wise and how (a la Romans 1:22) they have in the process become fools. 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 includes some favorite verses conservative Evangelicals love to apply to themselves, but less willing to apply to the case of others (as I can say from personal experience): It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on... Read more

Monday’s episode (“Dungeons and Dragons”) of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles explored further the comparison between child rearing and the perils of artificial intelligence. This may have been too subtle for some viewers to pick up on, though. Key lines in the episode include the following: The reference to Skynet by its maker as having become frightened and insecure, to the extent that it couldn’t be reassured. The statement “Sometimes they go bad. No one knows why”. Both could easily... Read more

I have long had an interest in the Bible and slavery. The same arguments that were used by slaveholders to justify the institution are recycled again in later times in relation to gender roles, homosexuality, and other issues. This subject illustrates nicely the difference between those who at least claim to focus on the details of specific passages, and those who focus on the foundational principles. Once one’s focus is on doing unto others what you would have them do... Read more