Fred Clark wrote the following in a post about the clobber texts for slavery: But the larger problem is this: We have concluded that some of our foremost and most influential theologians, pastors, and biblical scholars were utterly wrong about a monumentally important matter of biblical truth. Yet, because we choose not to explore why or how they were wrong, we are unable to learn from their grievous mistake. We have no way of knowing whether or not we are,... Read more
I got a kick out of this depiction of John Venn, the inventor of the Venn Diagram, which came my way from The Thinker Builder via Pinterest. But it actually has a serious side to it. When we apportion the world into categories, it can affect our view of things, just as Venn diagram glasses might. Read more
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In a recent comment, this reworking of Clarke’s Third Law was drawn to my attention: It is known as Grey’s Law, and it is the counterpart to what is known as Hanlon’s Razor: Read more
I came across the cartoon below, which seems to be neither funny nor accurate. I’m tempted to start a four-part a cappella vocal group called “The Moseses” in which we wear shirts that say “J,” “E,” “D,” and “P” and sing separate strands of the Pentateuchal narrative, just to show that it works just fine, even in that cartoonish version.   Read more
From Savage Chickens   Read more
“Occam’s Razor does not shave people.” — Harold Torger Vedeler, “Science Fiction, the Bible, and the Narrative Method,” paper read at the EABS and International SBL meeting in Vienna, July 2014, Science Fiction and the Bible group. I was delighted to have the chance to attend one of the sessions on the Bible and science fiction at the SBL/EABS conference in Vienna. All three papers in that session were interesting, and Frauke Uhlenbruch’s paper about Douglas Rushkoff’s graphic novel series... Read more
The image below is a composite of a Christian response to the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debate, plus the scientific explanation of sunsets. It is frustrating that there are people who consider themselves Christians and yet seem to be making every effort to promote atheism. Why on Earth would anyone feel the need to choose between belief in God and belief that science can help us understand sunsets? Contrast this with John Farrell's recent piece for Forbes about medieval Christians who... Read more
Click the above to listen to the song. The lyrics are here. Â Â Read more
I saw the above image on Facebook. It seems to me that, worded this way, it could be an argument for anything from atheism to a religious crusade to conquer and spread. But when we look at the underlying data – the fact that most of the universe seems to be hostile to life – I would point out that the same proportion of matter is empty space. Yet the combination of subatomic particles and empty space in those proportions... Read more
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