I’ve finally begun watching the latest season of Doctor Who. I will not post any genuine spoilers in this post – you won’t learn what the Face of Boe’s secret is from me! 🙂 But the last episode I watched, “Gridlock”, raises questions that I’ve asked before in other contexts. Can we imagine our descendents 15 million years in the future, living perhaps 15 million light years from Earth, still singing hymns like “The Old Rugged Cross” or even “Abide... Read more

No, I’m not asking about a fanciful apocalyptic scenario based on a few texts taken out of context. Last night, my church showed the animated movie Cars. I found the movie moving (both literally and metaphorically, I suppose), but I was particularlly struck by the way themes from the movie intersected with ones I have been thinking about while reading Jack Clayton Swearengen’s book Beyond Paradise: Technology and the Kingdom of God. In the movie Cars, most of the story... Read more

In their book on Rumor Psychology Nicholas DiFonzo and Prashant Bordia mention the concept of “Matthew Accuracy”. Deriving its name from the principle in the Gospel of Matthew that “to the one who has more will be given, but from the one who does not have even the little he has will be taken away”, Matthew Accuracy denotes the tendency of truthful rumors to become more truthful, while false rumors tend to become more false (pp.152-4). If it could be... Read more

Gerald R. McDermott’s second book on world religions from an Evangelical perspective was published this year, entitled God’s Rivals. Both books seem to be part of a larger project, and there are many respects in which this volume is logically prior to his first, Can Evangelicals Learn From World Religions? That first book focused more on what Evangelicals can learn from other religions, while this book seeks to provide more in the way of justification and explanation of the Biblical... Read more

It is time to reveal the truth behind the urban legend regarding “Theresa Banyan” and the question of hell’s endothermic/exothermic nature. This legend in fact derives from a real incident in the life of St. Theresa of Banyan, the famous Indian saint and mystic, known by this name because of her custom of meditating and praying under a banyan tree (all the spots under bodhi trees were taken). St. Theresa posed the question of whether hell was exothermic or endothermic... Read more

I am grateful to Marc Goodacre for sharing his own research on the urban legend regarding hell’s exothermic/endothermic nature. As previously mentioned, my own research of late has turned to precisely the theme he discussed in his 2004 lecture which he shares, namely oral tradition and the circulation of urban legends. Of course, the circulation of such legends in our digital age via e-mail allows for much wider dissemination, as well as more precise reproduction, than was the case in... Read more

Most readers will probably have already encountered this bit of web humor which asks “Is hell endothermic or exothermic?” but I thought I’d share it for those who may still not have seen it, since it ties into the theme of my previous two blog entries, as well as my broader interest in religion and science. 🙂 [It is found in lots of places on the internet, but to give credit where credit is due, I copied it from here…]... Read more

I find myself needing to say more about the imagery in the movie The Fountain (reviewed in my previous blog entry). Although I am a religion professor specializing in Biblical studies, I tend to have more to say about other subjects on my blog – perhaps because I have so many other forums and outlets for expressing myself on things to do with the Bible. Apart from in my class on The Bible, in which we discuss the creation stories... Read more

Yesterday I watched the movie The Fountain.Having read a review or two I was geared up to find it incoherent; instead I found it fabulous, insightful, provocative and deeply moving. I highly recommend it. The story focuses on two characters, Tommy and Izzi, who are husband and wife. Tommy is a scientific researcher trying to find a cure for cancer, and he has a personal investment in his research, since Izzi has terminal cancer. Izzi is writing a book called... Read more

I just installed what I consider a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more. Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a... Read more