From God of Evolution. Is it safe to assume that everyone will understand that this question is a parody of the young-earth creationist question “If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” and that it alludes to Genesis 2? I previously made something similar and shared it here – “Why is there still dust?” Read more
For those who have wanted to see and hear the upcoming debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, but have not wanted to give money to support the Creation Museum, there is good news. A website has been set up to livestream the debate, at http://debatelive.org/ Read more
While some, knowing me, might expect this to be a post about Doctor Who, it isn’t. My colleague Jim Keating had his students work on a website as part of their study of Islam in a Global and Historical Studies core curriculum course. The result is a website called – you guessed it – The Curator. Click through and take a look! Read more
The following is a fictional conversation composed by Eric Hatfield: Moses: Hey Aaron, how do you spell “quark” in Hebrew? Aaron: No idea. What do you want to know that for? M: It’s Yahweh again. Keeps telling all this strange stuff about strangeness and charm and spin, and quarks and gravitons and dark matter. I don’t mind not understanding, but I need to know how to write this stuff down. A: Tell Him we’re just stone-age goat-herders living a subsistence... Read more
I was recently reading the new translation of The Acts of Thomas by Harold Attridge, and was struck by the similarity between a phrase used in that text to the way the 12th century bhakti poet Mahadeviyakka (also known as Mahadevi) expresses herself. In one of her poems, she expresses her devotion to Shiva as her lord and husband. And then she adds, “Take these husbands who die, decay, and feed them to your kitchen fires!” In the Acts of Thomas... Read more
Someone on Facebook asked about God communicating and sacred texts, and I thought I would share the comment here. I think that, of all the possible ways that God might be thought to communicate, the notion that he communicated the precise words that he desired through human authors, without in any way changing their style or improving their grammar, and then left it up to religious communities to deduce and debate which texts were so inspired, is the least likely... Read more
The presidential proclamation would not have been enough. It took Facebook to make me aware of it. Read more
The American Academy of Religion call for papers for the 2014 annual meeting is now live, and it includes a brand new program unit which I co-chair. Here are the details. Click through to submit a paper proposal! Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity Group Statement of Purpose: This program unit focused on Late Antiquity in the East aims to provide a home for the study of religious traditions that are rooted in Mesopotamia, Persia, and western Asia, particularly those parts... Read more
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