For those interested in Judaism, Mandaeism, Late Antiquity, ancient magic, Aramaic, and any number of other topics, there are two sessions at AAR this year that you ought not to miss. One is the Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity session, about which I’ll include details further below. But the other is a session which will feature some actual magic bowls on display. I’m concerned that some might miss this rather unique opportunity, and so I thought I should highlight it... Read more
John Loftus summarized a list provided by Sean Carroll of six arguments that are used by science denialists: The six arguments used by science denialists aim to:1) Cast doubt on science.2) Question the motives and integrity of scientists.3) Magnify disagreements between scientists, especially to cite gadflies as authorities.4) Exaggerate the potential harm coming from science.5) Appeal to the need and value of personal freedom.6) Object that accepting science repudiates some key point of philosophy. These are a slightly different version of... Read more
When I picked Gibney’s for the Bloggers’ gathering, I didn’t notice an important detail: they are closed on Sundays! And so let’s move the event to Meehan’s Public House, at 200 Peachtree Street, just 3 minutes’ walk from the Convention Center. I am going to see if they have a back room available for us, and if so will ask if we can use it for the event, rather than just make the main dining area and bar more crowded. And... Read more
Daniel McClellan made the cartoon above, and I wanted to make sure more people see it. He makes the same points that are made in multiple other places around the web, but less succinctly. For instance, Mark Jurgensmeyer writes: ISIS has not been doing well these days. On the day before the attacks the strategic town of Sinjar has been retaken by Kurdish and Yazidi forces, cutting off the ISIS supply line between their main town in Syria, Rakka, and... Read more
I am happy to have the chance to participate in the Patheos Book Club about Danielle Shroyer’s book Where Jesus Prayed: Illuminating the Lord’s Prayer in the Holy Land. I was eager to participate, since I’ve been to the Holy Land multiple times, and will be leading a group of students traveling there again next summer, and so I was interested to see what she had to say. In essence, the book is a set of reflections, focused on particular... Read more
This episode (spoilers ahead) does one of the things that Doctor Who has done quite often in the past, but not recently in any instance I can think of, namely poking fun at particular genres. Doctor Who is science fiction, comedy, horror, drama, and children’s show, all rolled into one. At times it has deliberately engaged in metalevel reflection on those genres. In this episode, however, Doctor Who entered a new genre, only to poke fun at it. This is the only... Read more
Cruelty begets cruelty. It doesn’t matter if you learn this point from Jesus, the Doctor, or somewhere else. Figuring out how to overcome evil not by repaying evil with evil, but by breaking the cycle of violence, is so hard that it seems impossible. But there is no other way. Read more
There is such a thing as being too rigidly literalistic. But sometimes we fall into the opposite pitfall and treat things as metaphors when ancient people would have assumed they were statements of literal fact. I’ve mentioned the “heart” as one example in the past. Is “heaven” another? Keith Reich has been blogging about the spectrum of meanings the word translated as “heaven” has in the Bible. Here are links to part 1, part 2, and part 3 of that... Read more
OK, I thought I was done with the poking of fun at this topic of Starbucks cups as an alleged “war on Christmas.” But the above painting depicting one of the stations of the cup was too good not to pass on. It comes to you courtesy of Pictoral Theology. Read more
It seems that everyone is aware that Marco Rubio’s statement about welders making more than philosophers was simply wrong. It also ignored facts such as that students study philosophy as groundwork for law school and other highly-paid careers. But most worrying about the statement is the way it seeks to antagonize two groups in society for political ends, and to denigrate the kind of education that is likely to lead one to look closely at claims made by politicians. And... Read more
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