I know there are readers of this blog whose expertise and connections range far and wide, and so I hope you won’t mind me appealing to you for assistance. Does anyone have or know of images of manuscripts of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary (Berlin Codex) that can be found online? If so, I would be extremely grateful if you could let me know where to find them. If they are in the public domain,... Read more
I recently had the story “They’re Made Our Of Meat” by Terry Bisson drawn to my attention. It is available to be read online, and it offers a nice, brief mirror to the way humans are prone to scoff at that which is unlike us. In my class on religion and science fiction, we’ve spent a lot of time in recent days talking and reflecting on artificial intelligence. One moment of particular interest was when someone asked whether a human... Read more
One key question: How did I not know about this song by Queen until now – or did I know about it and somehow forget? Another key question: Can we do this song in church sometime? (The issue, as far as that is concerned, is less “Will this meet with approval?” and more “Do we have anyone who can play the guitar solo?”) And then maybe eventually we can also do “The Prophet's Song“? And “All God's People“? Perhaps it... Read more
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Scot McKnight blogged recently about “the MOOC delusion.” I think it is fair to say that anyone who thought that MOOCs would be the future of higher education had not thought about the matter with an adequate historical perspective. It has long been the case that academics have, in some form or other, given our perspectives away for free. It may not have been as easy for as many to benefit from this as is the case now. But our books... Read more
David Hayward posted this cartoon: I find it all the more interesting because it potentially highlights two possible ways of thinking about and approaching church, and Christianity. On the one hand, there is an approach that uses appealing things to lure people into a trap that ultimately results in their spiritual death, as they join a community which exists largely as a pyramid scheme to keep attracting more and more people. On the other hand, there is an approach which... Read more
This graphic, with its variation on the old “give someone a fish” saying, has been making the rounds on Facebook. It gets at a key aspect of liberal arts education, one that is endangered by those voices that suggest that students need little more than training in job skills. Learning how to pursue a profession in the narrowest sense may not prepare you to confront ethical conundrums, stand up for your rights, or see how systems are unjust, imagine... Read more
If scholarly publications in the English-speaking world can be duped (think the Sokal hoax) into publishing a spoof as a serious article, how much more, one might think, could this happen in Eastern Europe? Now we know, as a group of Serbian academics sokaled (if that isn't a word, it should be) a Romanian periodical. IO9, quoting Retraction Watch which first reported the story, wrote: The paper is replete with transparent gimmicks — obvious, that is, had anyone at the... Read more
The reading for today’s class (in my Religion and Science Fiction class) was from Terminator and Philosophy: I’ll Be Back, Therefore I Am. Artificial intelligence, cyborgs, clones, and transporters all make for great philosophical and religious discussion. But is it even better when couched in lines from Shakespeare? HT SF Signal Read more
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