Zack Hunt shared the above image on Facebook. I have not had any real interest in participating in the creation of these stick figure descriptions of oneself, but I have appreciated several of the parodies and attempts at humor around them. And this one, as a response to the endorsement by Jerry Falwell Jr. of Donald Trump as the presidential candidate for conservative Evangelicals, seems to make the existence of the stick figure phenomenon worthwhile. Read more
Jerry Coyne drew attention to a competition with a cash prize, asking people to invent a religion. The Huffington Post has an article about the competition, and the full rules are online. It is actually an interesting competition, precisely because it is a lot harder than some might imagine to come up with something genuinely innovative in the realm of religion, which nonetheless draws enough on the past that it has symbolic depth, and which has widespread appeal and is considered... Read more
Two different people suggested that this quote should be turned into a meme. It is from a blog post which rounded up blogging about the Christology of Mark’s Gospel, in which I also referred to and summarized an article in Christianity Today about how Evangelicals view those who move into academia. Read more
The call for papers for the American Academy of Religion 2016 Annual Meeting in San Antonio is now live on the website. Click through to submit a proposal or browse the calls for papers. Below is the text from the program unit of which I am co-chair, Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity. Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity Group Statement of Purpose: This program unit focused on Late Antiquity in the East aims to provide a home for the study of... Read more
I loved seeing the X-Files make its return to television last night. Here are some thoughts about the episode and in particular religious themes in it. The episode begins with Mulder’s story and perspective. In narrating about the long history of UFOs, he refers to “Biblical references.” At the end of the opening monologue, he says we have to ask ourselves whether they are truly a hoax, or whether we are being lied to. Through much of the episode, a storyline... Read more
Atheism is easy to disprove. Watch: Cats exist Ancient Egyptians (as well as some current cat owners) worship cats as gods Therefore, gods exist Therefore, atheism is false I am being somewhat flippant, but as I have pointed out before (then using the example of the universe as god for pantheists), unless one defines clearly what one means by “god,” then one cannot make sweeping statements such as that “there is no god of any sort.” Or at least, one... Read more
Here’s another doozy I came across on Facebook. The creator clearly didn’t care that the speaker in this verse is Eliphaz, and that in the final chapter of the book, God is said to be angry with Eliphaz and his friends for not having spoken rightly. I wonder whether I should be trying to get both sides of the market, creating a daily verse calendar exclusively quotes from Job’s friends on the one hand, and on the other hand, using... Read more
There has been a lot of discussion and speculation about The Force Awakens related to Kylo Ren’s admiration for his grandfather, Darth Vader, and his fear that he will never be as strong as he was. I think that one thing that the prequels offer that the original trilogy didn’t is a chance to really flesh out the character of the man who became Darth Vader. He starts out in “A New Hope” as something of a cardboard cutout villain, and... Read more
Robert Piper offered this quip on Facebook as a comment on another meme, and I thought it deserved to become a meme in its own right, and so (with his permission), here it is. Read more
The joke seems to me the perfect combination of the “Two Corinthians” set up and a punch line that alludes to the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. It is from a comment on an earlier post about “Two Corinthians.” I thought it deserved to be memed. What do you think? Read more
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