A friend of mine recently said to me that there is a need for an “I feel your pain” button on Facebook – something that allows you to express the sympathy that we often want to express by clicking “like” but refrain from doing because “like” sounds as though we are taking pleasure in their pain. What do you think about having an “I feel your pain” button? What other buttons would you add to Facebook posts? Read more
I have sometime found myself in a debate with someone whose views I do not actually find objectionable, because they used the term “Intelligent Design” but meant something very different by it. The view that the cosmos is “intelligently designed,” that the universe is “fine tuned” for the sort of life that we are to come into existence and thrive within it, is very different (in my opinion) from the view that posits Intelligent Design specifically in the realm of... Read more
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SF Signal and IO9 are both reporting that science fiction author Frederick Pohl has passed away. UPDATE: When I first saw this news and blogged about it, I somehow managed to muddle Frederick Pohl and Poul Anderson in my mind. The latter passed away more than a decade ago. I apologize for the confusion. Read more
VinnyJH asked in a recent comment a question that I too have often asked: I’ve often wondered how someone who believes that God designed everything goes about distinguishing the characteristics of a thing that is designed from those of a thing that isn’t. If there are no undesigned things, how do you determine that any criteria can successfully make the distinction? Proponents of Intelligent Design argue that, in the genome, we see evidence of a Designer who created complex specified... Read more
From Cartoon Church. My church doesn't have a first class option, but at least it also doesn't have cramped exit row seating either… Read more
This came to me via Bob Cargill and Thom Stark on Facebook. It nicely makes the point that many Christian views of “salvation” are more like “protection” in the sense that word has in protection rackets. The one “protecting” you is also the one they are protecting you from. Perhaps genuine salvation ought to save us first and foremost from imagining God and/or Jesus as being like a human gangster? Read more
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I think that everyone can agree that some people are deceived, right? Can everyone agree that some things that have been written and published reflect unconscious biases and even deliberate distortion? Can everyone agree that some people have been exposed primarily to propaganda, and have mistaken the contents of that propaganda for truth? If we can all agree on the above, then there is only one question left to ask, and I will ask it as a genuine question rather... Read more
The latest Biblical Studies Carnival has been posted on the blog Near Emmaus. Many thanks for Brian LePort for hosting it this month! The monthly Hebrews carnival has also appeared, as has the new Septuagint Soiree. I am delighted to say that Exploring Our Matrix is represented in all three! Read more
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