I shared this clip once before, but that clip was removed from YouTube for copyright reasons. I suspect that this one may also have the same thing happen. And so before it does, I thought I would share it one more time. Today in my religion and science fiction class, we discussed mutants and the mythologization of evolution in TV shows such as Heroes and comic books and movies such as X-Men. Read more
Plenty of others are discussing the government shutdown in the United States, and so I won’t try to cover the whole story. What I consider most noteworthy is just how much it says about our priorities. Not everything that is part of the government’s budget is actually shutting down. “Essentials” such as military activities are continuing without interruption. It is only “non-essentials” such as many health services, and national parks (I know of a school that had to cancel their... Read more
The text comes from a comment by GakuseiDon on a post about the relative merits of the so-called Silver Rule, Golden Rule, and Platinum Rule. Read more
The Butler University Seminar on Religion and World Civilization got off to a wonderful start this year, with a session focused on freedom of religion as defined in the first amendment to the United States Constitution. Our three guest speakers were Sheila Seuss Kennedy, Rick Garnett, and Dan Conckle. Some who have attended many of these events described this as the best they had been to. And so I am delighted to be able to actually share the video of... Read more
P. Z. Myers shared a link to a wonderful account of a science teacher responding effectively to the inane “were you there?” question that Ken Ham and other ignoramuses think are clever. Click through to read it. Read more
P. Z. Myers shared this bit of nonsense from Ray Comfort: I’m not sure whether to focus on kosher food laws, or the likelihood that Ray Comfort is intentionally trying to make Christianity look ridiculous by publicly spouting this nonsense. So I’ll just leave it at this, and let you discuss whatever you like in the comments section – since apparently in the absence of a prohibition against whale meet, you can all simply do whatever you like. Read more
HT Persona Read more
David Hayward shared the above cartoon, depicting a deity that sets a trap that leads to the downfall of the one who falls into it. There is a lot of Christian theology that mirrors what is depicted. And it deserves to be highlighted, talked about, and challenged by those who find it seriously problematic. Read more
Someone turned part of the post I quoted recently into an image: Is Star Wars about the emperor being given the shaft? No. It is about a young man with great potential wanting to do whatever it takes to hold on to someone he holds dear, and becomes a force so destructive that he hurts the one he originally set out to save. It is about a man who sees no potential for redemption in himself. It is about that... Read more
Via Marc Cortez, I learned that today was International Coffee Day, and that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a satirical cantata about coffee, “Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht.” If you click through, Marc has 16 other things you may not have known about coffee! Read more
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