Scott Paeth gave me permission to share something he wrote on Facebook: I just had a flash of insight on the whole gun debate: Pro-gun people are absolutely right — in the absence of human beings to abuse them, guns can’t do any harm. Therefore the solution to this dilemma is simple: The guns should be denied access to human beings, since it’s so clear that the human beings are dangerous. As one commenter on his post pointed out, weapons... Read more
Kris Lyle has posted the latest Biblical Studies Carnival. And Phil Long is still looking for a volunteer to host the next one. If you have never hosted a carnival, please consider seizing this opportunity! Read more
A moment that many readers of this blog have been waiting for has finally arrived. Patheos has created an ad-free subscription option, called Patheos Insider! Just click on the words Patheos Insider on the top left corner of the blog (or use this link), and let me know how things look after you’ve done so! Read more
Since the Ark Encounter is opening in seven days as a tourist attraction dedicated to the promotion of pseudoscience and the twisting of the Bible, I have decided to offer an alternative seven days of better views of creation scientifically, scripturally, and morally, ones that provide honest and accurate information, and thus do not mislead readers into thinking that it is necessary to choose between faith and the acceptance of the conclusions of science. Let’s start with the multi-author volume... Read more
For those who may not get it, the meme above is poking fun at the fact that two apologists on the fringes of academia – Richard Carrier and William Lane Craig – have both attempted to introduce Bayesian reasoning to bring rigor to the subjects that interest them. In the one case, it supposedly proves that Jesus did not exist, while in the other, it supposedly proves that he rose from the dead. The combination proves that Bayesian logic doesn’t... Read more
Putting drone technology to good use… Read more
You’ve probably seen versions of the above that make the false claim that the Bible offered science ahead of its time – which no one noticed apparently until after the fact. John Loftus shared the above response, which pokes fun at that attempt. My own perspective is that both the religious fundamentalists who insist that the Bible is something other than a collection of ancient human texts, and the atheists who think it is noteworthy that the Bible is a... Read more
Call For Abstracts: “Frontiers: Cosmos, Curiosity, Creativity” McGill University, Montreal, November 12-13, 2016 Cultures approach religious questions in ways informed by their cosmologies and vice versa. Traditions and concerns considered religious therefore interact closely with cosmological investigations and ideas, in the imaginative work of public and private world-building. “Frontiers” is an interdisciplinary event sponsored by the Centre for Research on Religion (CREOR) with the cooperation of McGill’s School of Religious Studies and the McGill Space Institute (MSI), highlighting and investigating... Read more
The Bizarro cartoon poses an interesting question for Catholic vegans and vegetarians who claim to believe in transubstantiation. Is communion an exception to eating no flesh? HT Hemant Mehta Read more
There are a lot of people in our time who can be described as “struggling with homosexuality.” In some cases, it is individuals struggling with their own sexuality. But in far more cases, it seems there are people who are heterosexuals and who are nonetheless ‘struggling with homosexuality’ – struggling to read the Bible in ways that are not harmful to other human beings, and struggling with their own innate tendency to disdain, judge, and interfere with the sexuality of... Read more
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