Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Last updated on: June 10, 2014 at 7:47 am By James F. McGrath

The dinosaurs from the Doctor Who episode “Invasion of the Dinosaurs“, although not terrible by the standards of the time, look really awful to some modern viewers spoiled by more advanced CGI special effects. When I rewatched the episode recently, perhaps I had duly lowered expectations, but I didn’t find that the special effects detracted from the story. The episode continues a focus on environmentalism that characterized the end of the Jon Pertwee era. Dinosaurs have been appearing in London... Read more

Betascript Publishing

Last updated on: June 9, 2014 at 4:44 pm By James F. McGrath

Sometimes when I’m on eBay, I’ll type in a word related to my research interests, to see what’s there. When I typed in “Mandaean” today, I saw a book that I had never seen before, on the Mandaic Language, selling for $68.93, published by Betascript Publishing. A quick glance at the cover had this self-contradictory notice: “High quality content by Wikipedia articles.” I Googled the publisher and quickly deduced that it is a company that offers print-on-demand books which reproduce... Read more

Papyri Online

Last updated on: June 9, 2014 at 11:29 am By James F. McGrath

What’s New in Papyrology shared two links yesterday. One was to the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, which has images of many important papyrus fragments of the New Testament available online. The other has transcriptions of a number of manuscripts of the Gospel of John. Read more

Hap

Last updated on: June 9, 2014 at 10:43 am By James F. McGrath

3quarksdaily shared a recording of this poem by Thomas Hardy. Here is the text: Hap BY THOMAS HARDY If but some vengeful god would call to me From up the sky, and laugh: “Thou suffering thing, Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, That thy love’s loss is my hate’s profiting!” Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die, Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited; Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I Had willed and meted me the tears I... Read more

I AM – the Name of God?

Last updated on: June 9, 2014 at 9:29 am By James F. McGrath

On another thread, about whether Jesus claimed to be God, the subject of Jesus saying “I am” in the Gospel of John came up, and since that comments section was rather cluttered already, it was suggested that it might be worth creating a separate post on the subject. I thought it was a great idea. The question that was asked had to do with whether “I am” was thought to be a name of God in this period. But I’d... Read more

Jesus and the Historian’s Craft

Last updated on: June 9, 2014 at 8:11 am By James F. McGrath

Tim O’Neill has posted part 1 and part 2 of an online article which is getting a lot of discussion: “An Atheist Historian Examines the Evidence for Jesus.” He does a really good job not just of explaining what the positive evidence is for there having been a historical Jesus, but why mythicist counterarguments are unpersuasive, especially when examined closely and in detail. Mark Allen Powell offered an updated survey of scholarship on the historical Jesus. Mythicists and Christian apologists get... Read more

Afterafterlife

Last updated on: June 8, 2014 at 10:01 pm By James F. McGrath

Hemant Mehta shared the above video, which pokes fun at many of the arguments for an afterlife that people use, pointing out that one can use those same arguments to insist that there must be something beyond an afterlife. UPDATE: Alex McManus makes a related point, based on an analogy from a future involving artificial intelligence. Read more

Speaking in Tongues at Crooked Creek Baptist Church

Last updated on: June 8, 2014 at 3:59 pm By James F. McGrath

Today at my church, as it was Pentecost, we had the text (Acts 2:1-13) read in several different languages. I contributed by reading the text in Koine Greek. I was rather annoyed with myself for not being able to read it out loud in a more fluent manner, without stumbling a bit over longer words in particular (click the image at the end of the post for the text, which I read and recorded again at home since the video... Read more

Honest Door-to-Door Salespeople/Evangelists

Last updated on: June 8, 2014 at 9:20 am By James F. McGrath

Faith minus Doubt

Last updated on: June 8, 2014 at 7:19 am By James F. McGrath

When looking for images to go in the background behind the quote (which is something I said when sharing a quote on this topic by someone else on the Progressive Christian Alliance Facebook page), I also came across a work of art by Barbara Kruger, which captures the same point from another angle. Click through to see it. Read more

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