Just because some made up stuff has been around a long time, doesn’t automatically make it better than stuff that was made up more recently. And thus XKCD tackles the widely-held but mistaken idea that people in Columbus’ time typically thought the world was flat, while Columbus was a lone voice insisting that it was round. Unfortunately, this idea had a long opportunity to circulate widely, before the advent of Snopes. But while it is bad to make stuff up... Read more
The consistently thought-provoking Sabio Lantz posted this image on his blog: I could respond with a Venn diagram of my own, one that depicts the intersection of liking the image and feeling I’ve understood it. I am not sure that I truly am in the overlap of the two. I instinctively like it. But what does it mean? Is the point that wisdom involves exploring the limits of knowledge and the limits of doubt, and balancing and clinging to both?... Read more
Abram K-J mentioned today on his blog the experience of noticing for the first time that, in the hymnic passage Philippians 2:6-11, Paul quotes a monotheistic text from Isaiah. Here they both are: Philippians Isaiah 45:23 ἵνα ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ πᾶν γόνυ κάμψῃ ... Read more
Eldad Keynan has a new article on the Bible and Interpretation site, about the burials of Jesus. While my book is about The Burial of Jesus in the singular, it does discuss the possibility that there could have been more than one. And my use of the plural in reference to Keynan's article is intentional, and accurate. Keynan suggests that the Gospel of John's depiction of the disciples' initial reaction, assuming that the body had been moved, was correct. I... Read more
Via IO9 I learned that Wired has an interesting piece about the probable monastic scribal origin of the @ sign, as a way of indicating “at” (whether in English or another language). It seems th@ monks beg@ this bit of shorthand – in the Biblical sense. Read more
For those in Indianapolis, don’t forget the event at Butler University on Friday exploring the relationship of science and religion. Read more
Here is another video from the retreat that I mentioned in an earlier post: Sharing the earlier one led someone to draw another LEGO parable to my attention, the Parable of the Sower: And I also learned that one has to be careful when bringing LEGOs to church. Read more
Eric Cline has made the case that an earthquake storm in the Eastern Mediterranean region and Anatolia may have created the context in which early Israel emerged, as the resulting cutting of trade routes and system collapse brought about the demise of Canaanite civilization – and others – as they had existed up to this point. Today on Archaeology Briefs, I saw an article which suggests that a severe drought occurred in the same period. The early Israelite settlements studied... Read more
Dale Tuggy, who teaches at SUNY Fredonia, left a comment here recently, pointing out the presence online of an article he wrote critically evaluating Richard Bauckham’s notion of “divine identity.” In the process, I discovered a blog called Trinities, to which Tuggy is a contributor. It really does explore the doctrines of divine threeness and oneness in all its aspects – including sharing Unitarian worship music. I confess I didn’t know there was such a thing until now! Read more
It was a longstanding gap in my reading of science fiction literature that I had never read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. With my religion and science fiction class soon to begin, and Ender’s Game being turned into a movie, I knew it was time to rectify things. I already owned a copy, and so it was just a matter of doing it (but I should mention that buy the book for Kindle on Amazon for less than $4). I won’t... Read more
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