I finally watched BSG Razor last night and it was fantastic. Battlestar Galactica has been fantastic in raising key issues and challenging stereotypes, forcing viewers to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions that apply not simply to humans and cylons in the far-off reaches of space but to us today. Spoiler alert: I will be talking about the details of Razor in what follows. One instance of such a challenge relates to Admiral Cain. We encounter her as a hard-nosed, seemingly... Read more

I just want to share a couple of exciting bits of news from Scientific Blogging. One post announces the discovery of organic molecules in Titan’s atmosphere. Titan’s atmosphere resembles that which the early earth is thought to have had, and the molecules in question are the same sort created by humans in the lab, when trying to explore plausible scenarios for the emergence of life on earth. The other post relates to evidence of some of the youngest solar systems... Read more

OK, it is official – I will be spending time learning Mandaic between now and the end of next summer, and trying to move from there to doing some work on the Mandaean texts (perhaps revisiting the question of connections with the Gospel of John, from the perspective of the most recent research and resurgence of interest in the Mandaeans). I noticed that many of the key texts would be difficult to find, and I imagined myself spending long hours... Read more

Gordon J. Glover, who has the blog Beyond the Firmament and a book by the same name, has shared a series of videos offering intelligent, articulate and respectful explanations of evolution aimed at Christians who have heard it blamed for atheism and the evidence supporting it called into question. I am posting the first one here. In other news, the blogosphere is responding to a story about someone at the Texas equivalent of the department of education who was forced... Read more

While priest and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin waxed poetic about his majestic vision of the universe and our place in it, I noticed that there seemed to be no young-earth creationist or intelligent design poets and hymn-writers (unless you count the guy who sings in the PBS Evolution documentary…[shudder]). So I poked around the internet and “found” this. I can’t remember where I found it, and if it looks like another song but with some changes, I had nothing... Read more

In last night’s episode of Bionic Woman, Jamie Sommers found herself stuck in the role of the only person available to take over the role of a dead assassin whose mission was to kill a nuclear scientists about to sell state of the art technology to North Korea. Great throw-away lines abounded, such as Jamie’s question “Don’t they already have a nuclear bomb?” to which Jonas replies “This one would actually work.” Jamie cannot bring herself to pull the trigger,... Read more

God and Evolution: A Reader, edited by Mary Kathleen Cunningham (New York: Routledge, 2007) If there is a hurdle that often confronts those seeking to understand and think through the relationship between God and evolution, it is an awareness and appreciation of the range of views on the subject. Cunningham’s reader goes a good way towards providing an up-to-date collection of key excerpts from the most important representatives of various positions and viewpoints in this area. More often than not,... Read more

I just noticed something ironic. I read most blogs in a feed aggregator, and the feed from Uncommon Descent adds the following to each post: _____________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2007 Uncommon Descent. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact [email protected] so we can take legal action immediately. _____________________________________________________________________ In view of the recent discussions about Bill... Read more

Here are some snippets from around the blogosphere… At Thoughts In A Haystack, John Pieret suggests that the Discovery Institute is yet again acting in a way that belies what it publicly denies, namely that Intelligent Design is religious in nature. There is also a post about the Guillermo Gonzalez tenure case on Further Thoughts. The Austringer suggests that the Discovery Institute’s new help belongs in the “with friends like these” category. Genomicron shares that the full text of a... Read more

A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called “Sects in the City“, about the various religious communities around Indianapolis. The project was undertaken with support from the Butler University’s Center for Faith and Vocation. I’ve long tried to use computing and the internet in teaching, and in particular getting students to produce work that can be made available on the internet. The quality varies, of course, but students sometimes take their work more seriously... Read more