A friend shared these photos of the sign outside his church on Facebook. He was inspired by a sign I shared on this blog! Read more
I recently had my attention drawn to a rather bizarre web page, connected with the “Jesus Birther Movement.” They oddly dismiss sources like Josephus because they were written somewhat later than Jesus’ time, as though that is uncommon, or normally means that an author writing slightly after a person’s own time is unlikely to be able to figure out whether a person existed. More telling, however, is that they also skip over Paul, who had met Jesus’ brother, and was alive at... Read more
Argentine artists Pool Paolini and Marianela Perelli have created a number of variations on Barbie and Ken, depicting them as versions of the Virgin Mary and other saints. I was rather relieved when I read the article and saw that these were not actual toys, since my initial reaction was to wonder, “Will kids play with this?” and then, “Won’t parents be offended when their kids take this Barbie and a Ken doll and start making kissing noises?” I’m much more interested, for obvious reasons, in... Read more
Open Parachute shared these three images, and I thought I’d pass them along, given their relevance to discussions we have here. Read more
Almost as soon as the Doctor gave his monologue in the episode “Listen,” I had the idea for this version of it, playing on a dream that all people may not have, but I am pretty sure all academics have. You’re at the conference, you’re supposed to present, and your paper isn’t there for whatever reason – it isn’t ready, or you’ve left it behind somewhere. Just as the Doctor asks whether perhaps we’re never truly alone, here I envisage him asking whether perhaps conference papers... Read more
The episode “Time Heist” is an episode that has the twists and turns of a characteristic Moffatt episode, complete with what the cast has come to call a “Moffatt loop.” The Doctor gets a phone call on the TARDIS, and very few people in the universe have that number. We later find that the Doctor gave the number to the person who called, and that that call led him to the place where he gave it to her, creating a loop.... Read more
I’ve been meaning for a while to blog about the story in the Gospel tradition, in which one of Jesus’ followers slices off the ear of the high priest’s servant in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:47 and parallels). Larry Behrendt had two posts on the subject back in August, which I had meant to draw attention to before now. The first pointed out oddities in the story – for instance, Peter attacks a presumably unarmed slave, and yet the response of the... Read more
Via Episcopal Church Memes on Facebook. Read more
The image above came to my attention via the blog God of Evolution. The sign really does help make an important point about scientific matters. If you not only aren't sufficiently informed about biology to know that evolution does not claim that humans descended from babboons or any other species currently in existence, but you also don't grasp the difference between ancestors and descendants, then you are not qualified to comment on such a question. I wonder, however, how... Read more
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