The episode Death to the Daleks reminded me of the unmade episode The Masters of Luxor, inasmuch as it begins with the TARDIS completely losing power, with a mysterious city with a beacon on it being responsible. But there the similarities end. As in other episodes, we encounter primitive beings who offer sacrifice, because of their perception of things that are remnants of an advanced civilization from an earlier era. The city itself turns out to be sentient. The Exilons... Read more
I’ve purchased my badges, and will be attending GenCon on Saturday and Sunday, August 16th and 17th. I also got myself a ticket to a screening of the movie “The God Question.” The God question seems to be present on the program more than in just the movie with that title, and more so than last year. There are several panels about incorporating God and religion into storytelling and games, as well as numerous games that have religious elements. ... Read more
Hello blog readers! I hope that most of you who have subscribed to my blog's RSS feed are continuing to see posts appear. But I know that at least a couple of people have found that, since the Patheos upgrade, they are no longer seeing new posts. I thought I would mention it, in the hope that if you notice that you are not seeing anything from Exploring Our Matrix, and are sure that I would not simply stop blogging,... Read more
Paul Braterman drew to my attention a blog post on Naturalis Historia about the influence of young-earth creationism on the Blue Letter Bible’s version of Strong’s Concordance. Look at this one in particular: The actual Strong’s Concordance suggests that the term refers to the hippopotamus. The notion that it refers to a dinosaur is something that has been proposed very recently by the modern movement known as young-earth creationism, which holds bizarre views that are a hodge podge of scientific terms... Read more
If you are or have ever been a role playing gamer, the IMGUR series calling for “dice shaming” to become a thing will make you laugh out loud. A sample is provided below. Click through for more. HT Jessica Chobot on Twitter. Read more
I have the distinct impression that the precise connotations of these terms varies from region to region. Which makes me a language dork, I gather. What are the connotations of “nerd,” “geek,” and “dork” in parts of the world that you are familiar with? Read more
A recent article in Tablet magazine mentions the reference to notsrim in a Talmud discussion of Sunday. There is a longstanding use of this term in reference to Christians, inasmuch as Jesus himself is described as “Yeshu ha-notsri.” But the term “notsri” does not naturally denote Nazareth, and the use of “Nazarenes” to describe Christians is something of an oddity itself, since there is no particular emphasis on or connection with the village of Nazareth in Christianity. Natsurai is, on... Read more
From The BLN. HT Jim Linville on Facebook. Read more
Fred Clark shared a link to a post about a Jesus action figure, which I blogged about before, and which poses a choking hazard. Reading that reminded me that I had not yet shared this image I came across, in which Jesus seems to be reenacting a famous scene from Star Wars: A New Hope. Some may find the above blasphemous. But if you do, then I would encourage you to ask yourself whether you don’t envisage God and/or Jesus... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In