I saw the above quote on Facebook and wanted to comment on it, since it takes something that C. S. Lewis attributes to others, and treats it as though it were his own viewpoint. You can read a fuller excerpt here. Lewis has a point that the inclusion of things that were difficult and uncomfortable provides a solid ground for arguing against the claim that these authors were simply inventing whatever suited them. But I don’t think that, for conservative Christians... Read more
There will be an interesting conference at Rice University this week: GNOSTIC COUNTERCULTURES: INTRIGUE AND TERROR (RICE UNIVERSITY, HOUSTON, 26-28 MARCH) Upcoming in Texas, a taste of something completely different: “Members of this congress will explore the Gnostic in Western culture from the ancient world to the modern New Age, tracing the emergence, persistence, and disappearance of metaphysical religious currents that are perceived to be countercultural, inverted, transgressive and/or subversive in their relationship to normative religion and their claim to... Read more
My latest contribution to the Bible Odyssey website is up. It is in the “Ask a Scholar” section, and is a response to this question: When Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman in John 4:17-19, is the passage about her husbands literal, or symbolic of the five different tribes that were settled in her town? Click through to read it. Read more
CNN has an article about mythicism. Here’s a sample: Crossan…says some Jesus deniers may be people who have a problem with Christianity. “It’s a way of responding to something you don’t like,” Crossan says. “We can’t say that Obama doesn’t exist, but we can say that he’s not an American. If we’re talking about Obama in the future, there are people who might not only say he wasn’t American, but he didn’t even exist.” Does it even matter if Jesus... Read more
Indiana passed a so-called religious freedom bill, which actually protects the right of businesses to refuse service. On the one hand, we ought to be very concerned indeed when we consider that this same legislation could justify refusing to serve people based on race, as long as the racism is justified by a religious belief. It might ultimately be decided that such a case is one of the many in which the government’s other “compelling interests” trump the business proprietor’s right to not... Read more
The episode begins with Desmond finding a doctor to help Penny give birth. They have a son. Then we see them sailing some time later. The boy is grown. Desmond is telling his son about the island he left a long time ago – Great Britain. Desmond is there to find Daniel Faraday’s mother. The computer at Oxford doesn’t have any record of someone named Faraday. But Desmond goes and finds Daniel’s lab, with the door sealed and marked “fumigation.”... Read more
I am pretty skeptical of ideas of an afterlife. So is one of the characters in this SMBC comic. But perhaps we simply aren’t using our imagination sufficiently. Is there a depiction of the afterlife that you have encountered that seems to you particularly problematic? Is there not one that you can imagine that would be desirable, regardless of whether you think it is something real or not? Read more
Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here is the call for papers: 2015 Conference: Transhumanism and the Church Samford University • Birmingham, AL • September 24-26, 2015 Transhumanism and the Church: Theological Reflections on Technology and Human Enhancement Technology has changed our world dramatically over the past century and promises to change it more rapidly in coming years. Emerging computer and biomedical technologies... Read more
Daniel Gulotta did an interview with Miami Valley Skeptics about mythicism. Not only has he shared links to the recording, but on his blog he has also offered detailed typed responses to questions that he was asked. Here is a sample: First and foremost, does the evidence indicate a historical Jesus Christ existed? Yes. Next question? Okay, I don’t think you will let me off that easily so let me be brief. From studying the letters of Paul, the Gospels,... Read more
Not long ago I mentioned that my entry on “Monotheism” was published in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics. It is an expensive two-volume reference work, and so I thought it appropriate to share with blog readers a discount code that Oxford gave to contributors, to share with friends and family. Type in AFMPG04 when checking out on the Oxford University Press website to save 30% – bringing the price down from $395 to $276.50. See below for more... Read more
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