Via Yuriy Stasyuk on Facebook. This is a clear violation of the Golden Rule. Treat the religions of others the way you want your own to be treated. Or better still, treat your own religious views with the honesty and moral sensibility that you use in relation to the religious claims and views of others. Read more
I learned today of the above video, set on Butler University’s campus. It was created as part of a Spanish language course, in which students were required to make videos which incorporated multiple instances of a particular grammatical form. Can you tell which one? The video has subtitles, for those who need them. I share this because I think it is a wonderful testimony to student creativity, and the kinds of learning that take place at Butler University. Read more
I thought that the view of the King James Version of the Bible that Stuff Fundies Like shared last week was extreme. Then they shared this doctrinal statement from Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church: Some will think this represent faithfulness to the Bible and to God. But I hope most readers can see it for what it really is: an arbitrary assertion that one’s preferred translation of the Bible is itself divinely revealed, so that one can sidestep difficult questions of evidence, of scholarship,... Read more
This Pearls Before Swine comic offers a different perspective on creationism and evolution. Often people debate big picture worldview questions, and don’t realize that neither appeals, because both seem irrelevant to real life and its daily concerns. Like donuts. Read more
If someone tells you that today’s students, perhaps because of video games, simply cannot focus the way students could in the past, don’t believe them. Halo Reach players spent five years trying to accomplish something in the game that seemed impossible: getting into…an empty room, one that was otherwise inaccessible, referred to as the “Banshee Room.” Here are the details of how it is done: The amount of focus, concentration, and repetition that is involved in figuring out something like... Read more
A few religious Star Wars memes for Star Wars Day. May the Fourth Be With You! Read more
A cute cartoon from People in White Coats. Is this blasphemy, or a miracle – or can it be both? While I probably would have shared it just for the punny title (mashing together pareidolia and idolatry), there is a serious point worth reflecting on – and not just about our human penchant to see patterns where none have been intentionally created. Religious traditions tend to view the miraculous claims of other religious traditions as blasphemous. Mary appearing? Blasphemous to most... Read more
Unvirtuous Abbey shared this on Facebook. This isn’t what I have pictured when I have read Acts 8. But it may be what I end up picturing from now on. But I have thought often about the tendency of science fiction to depict miracles and gods as real, but the products of advanced technology or alien biology. The question, of course, is whether that approach undermines the legitimacy of religion, or proves its literal truthfulness. Or can it do both... Read more
The Washington Post shared an infographic from Personal Creations (below) which compares how long it will take an average reader, at an average speed, to read various works of literature. I’d like to suggest that a simple comparison of page numbers isn’t a good guideline – or at least, if you are reading a compilation of ancient literature translated from other languages at the same speed as you read a modern novel, then you are almost certainly reading the former... Read more
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