Internet, I need your help. According to a commenter who randomly showed up on my blog, I am not a credible source of information, because I do not have a Wikipedia page: I may be wrong, but my impression is that it is inappropriate for someone to create a Wikipedia page for themselves. And so I am turning to you. Please help me, internet, and restore – no, bestow upon me – the credibility I lack. And perhaps more importantly,... Read more
Job 36:26 is such a striking statement in just about every translation. Some simply say that we do not know God. Others opt to render it in terms of our not understanding God. A recent post on Jeff Hood’s blog connected the verse to Paul Tillich’s idea of the “God beyond God.” By definition, a God that your mind can grasp doesn’t deserve the capital “G.” And therefore arrogant and dogmatic claims to comprehension are incompatible with authentic religious faith. For a... Read more
I was delighted to attend an advance screening tonight of the movie Hidden Figures, and I am enthusiastically recommending it. It combines so much into one movie: it is based on real historical events; it has romance; it is a feel-good, family-friendly movie with a powerful positive message and excellent role models; it addresses issues of racism, sexism, and social change; and it revolves around (or orbits, if you prefer) a key moment in the history of NASA and America’s effort... Read more
HT Jerry Coyne Read more
This New Yorker cartoon really sums up well what the current attitude many have towards experts and expertise sounds like. And it highlights the hypocrisy of it, as though figuring out what is happening with the climate, or the history of biological organisms, or what happened in the past, involves less training and expertise than flying a plane or performing surgery. All these different skills share in common that there is training and specialization required, and while plenty of people think that... Read more
The Center for the Study of Christian Origins shared the above video interview with Meredith Warren, about her book My Flesh Is Meat Indeed: A Nonsacramental Reading of John 6:51-58. Read more
Jennifer Guo hosts the latest Biblical Studies Carnival. Phil Long has information about upcoming carnivals, and your opportunity to volunteer to host one. Read more
“Those old Greek gods are not just poetry and legend. In them the Ancients personified living realities—intelligence, beauty, love, or lust, which are still at work in our hearts, and which fashion our person. The language they speak is that of image and myth, which touches the person much more directly than the explicit language of science and the intellectual dialectic of the modern world. It is also the language of the Bible, of the parables of Christ, which the... Read more
I was going to screenshot a Facebook discussion that illustrated the similarity between the two groups, anti-science creationists and anti-history mythicists. But in the end, I decided to just share this comment I made there, which I hope boils down the indistingishable character of some of their claims and arguments at their most basic level, in a nutshell. Creationists or mythicists? You judge… “There is no evidence” – What about this…or this…or this…? “That doesn’t count, could mean X, Y,... Read more
Above is another fantastic discovery of the late Romantic era, when so much of my favorite music stems from. It is Mieczysław Karłowicz’s Symphony in E-minor, Op.7, also known as the “Rebirth Symphony” If you enjoyed the above, here’s more – his Violin Concerto in A Major Op 8: I hope this music gets your year off to a great start! Read more
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