That young-earth creationists lie to the general public bothers me. That I once fell for their lies and passed them on to others bothers me a little more. But I feel genuine anger when my students are influenced by their lies. Not a semester passes without some student happening across YEC materials and mistaking them for scholarship. That is, after all, their intention. They dress their stuff up with footnotes so that automated systems like Google Scholar will make that mistake,... Read more
I am grateful to Fordham Press for sending me a gratis review copy of Christopher Rios’ book After the Monkey Trial. The book in fact begins its historical survey before the famous Scopes trial, and offers a survey of fundamentalist, Evangelical, and other Christian responses to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and subsequent scientific work on the subject. It is in fact a history of science-friendly fundamentalist and conservative Christianity. The book focuses in on two organizations: the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA)... Read more
Depending on where you are coming from, you can regard this as highlighting the absurdity of trying to treat the YEC interpretation of the flood story as factual, or as laying the groundwork for another theme park, Ark Encounter II. Read more
Via The Daily Kos. Given that it connects Doctor Who and current events, I had to share it. Read more
Conor Cunningham’s book Darwin’s Pious Idea is an impressive effort, aimed at challenging the shared view among fundamentalists (whether religious or atheist) of what the implications are of Darwin’s theory of evolution. I am grateful to Eerdmans for having sent me a gratis review copy. The book begins by problematizing the essentialization of many aspects of and concepts related to biological evolution that are in reality quite blurry: the self, the species, and the gene get particular attention. A key... Read more
Roger Wolsey shared the cartoon above. In my Sunday school class yesterday, I found myself pondering the question of how faith and patriotism relate to one another. The matter is not as simple even as my own American Baptist tradition might seem to make it by advocating separation. I do think that “separation of church and state” is the best approach. But surely that doesn’t mean that Christians and other religious people ought not to discuss and participate in the political life... Read more
I am grateful to IVP Academic for sending me a gratis review copy of Kyle Greenwood's book Scripture and Cosmology. Greenwood's book is not entirely unlike books that I've reviewed before by John Walton, in terms of the ancient data surveyed. Scripture and Cosmology explores Ancient Near Eastern ideas about the Earth, the sky-dome over it, the windows in it, and other such details that should be familiar to readers of the Bible. What Greenwood offers that is highly distinctive,... Read more
Tyler Franke has offered a comical cartoon version of a debate between Ken Ham, Bill Nye, Moses, and Jesus. Below is a sample. Click through for more. Read more
The above video is one that I took of a street performer at the 2016 Sibiu State Theater Festival. I hope you enjoy it! Read more
Ronald Osborn’s book Death Before the Fall is one that I put off reading for a while, because its title and subtitle seemed to be narrowly focused on things that I was not as concerned about as I once was. But the volume is not in fact just limited to a treatment of things that should be obvious – that animal death and suffering are a reality regardless whether one embraces evolution or some pseudoscientific form of creationism, and that... Read more
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