The Matrix movies came out a long time ago – the original film was released in 1999! And so the allusion to them in the title of this blog is seeming increasingly dated. And so I’ve decided that it is probably time to rename this blog – even though rumor has it that The Matrix 4 will be made, and perhaps yet another Matrix movie after that. Of course, those rumors go back to things Keanu Reeves said in 2011… When... Read more
A friend posted this as her status update on Facebook, and it seemed to me precisely the sort of thing that might go viral, and so I asked permission to share it. For those who aren’t aware, there have been “Pence Must Go” signs up all over Indianapolis. And so the comment on Facebook is noting the irony, that Pence is going…to try to go to Washington DC, which wasn’t what the signs meant! Read more
This post is not asking what arguments can be offered by those who advocate believing the Bible. Rather, I am here posing the question where the idea comes from in the first place, that the appropriate thing to do with the Bible is to believe it. When precisely did the approach to religion arise that shifted trust from being directly on God to being on a text that God is thought to have inspired? Of related interest, see Shaun Rufener’s recent post about believing... Read more
A friend and former colleague posted the meme above, and I found it funny, but also disturbing. “Put down your phone and learn something” could only be said by someone my age or older. It posits a false dichotomy, living as we do in a time when one can much more easily pick up one’s phone and learn something. But Pokemon Go does seem like it could translate naturally into a taxonomy app, or a birdwatching app, or a scavenger... Read more
Quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Totam rem aperiam. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam. Read more
What do you think of this updating of the words of Jesus? As one commenter said on Facebook (on the Catholic Memes page where I came across this), “I choose you, Peter-chu!” Read more
I’ve been watching Stargate SG-1 from the beginning, and decided not to blog about every episode (the way I still need to finish doing with Doctor Who). But I do plan to write occasional blog posts on interesting religious themes in the show. And one moment that really struck me was in the episode “Abyss” from Season 6, when longstanding member of the team Daniel Jackson, who had ascended to a higher plane of existence, refused to intervene to help his... Read more
This New Yorker cartoon came to my attention via Facebook, and I immediately knew I had to share it, if only to remind myself that, even when one of my memes goes viral (as this one in particular did, and this one in a more modest way just recently), that isn’t what is going to fix the problems facing our world. But can memes help at all? Have you ever had a meme speak to your soul, and lead you... Read more
When a clickbait title says that there are 30 things I never knew about The Force Awakens, or 9 outrageously awesome Doctor Who facts, I tend to be skeptical, but may well click through nonetheless. It was genuinely new information for me that the footage of the Beatles appearing on Top of the Pops has been lost, except for the appearance of that footage in the classic Doctor Who episode “The Chase.” My mind immediately turned to the many ancient examples of... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In