Changing Churches

Last updated on: August 5, 2013 at 1:05 pm By James F. McGrath

Patheos is hosting a conversation about passing on the faith, and I encourage you to click through and read other participants in the conversation. My Sunday school class has been working through Hebrews, but as we encountered mention of people ceasing to meet together, our discussions have turned towards discussion of millennials, church attendance, communication and technology, and many other subjects related to this topic. One of the things we discussed in my Sunday school class this past Sunday was... Read more

Objective Ministries

Last updated on: August 5, 2013 at 11:43 am By James F. McGrath

Objective Ministries is clearly a parody site. But it is just close enough to what some extreme Christian groups claim and try to accomplish, that you have moments of doubt. I had come across it before, but having found my way there again yesterday, I thought I’d share the site with you. My favorite elements on the web site are the following: The suggestion that the ancient Israelites were attacked by Pterosaurs, and Moses scared them off with a divinely-provided... Read more

Narrow vs. High Standards

Last updated on: August 5, 2013 at 10:13 am By James F. McGrath

Stuff Fundies Like shared this questionnaire that would-be guest speakers at a fundamentalist church have to complete: I suppose the main point to make in response is that rejecting lots of things does not mean that your standard is high, only that it is narrow. And unless one figures out the difference early enough, the narrow approach will inevitably end up excluding things that are true, rather than holding oneself and others to the high standard of truthfulness. Read more

How Many Adam?

Last updated on: August 5, 2013 at 9:29 am By James F. McGrath

I have often said (in particular with reference to the creation account in Genesis 1) that one can read a text with great frequency and still fail to notice something for a surprisingly long time. We can also fail to notice what the text does not say, and what we are reading into it. Yesterday in a Facebook group I participate in, it was pointed out that, unless one has the Genesis 2 creation account in mind, when one reads... Read more

Worthy of Worship?

Last updated on: August 5, 2013 at 8:33 am By James F. McGrath

I’ve assigned Aaron Smuts’ chapter “‘The Little People’: Power and the Worshipable” from Philosophy in The Twilight Zone when I’ve taught my class about religion and science fiction in the past. Here is a link to the episode “The Little People” to which the title refers, in case you’ve never seen it: It turns out that not only is an earlier draft of Smuts’ chapter available online, but so too are many others of his writings. Among them, and of related interest,... Read more

Omega Point

Last updated on: August 4, 2013 at 11:31 pm By James F. McGrath

Via Metanexus blog Read more

Smoke Rises from the BBC

Last updated on: August 4, 2013 at 4:01 pm By James F. McGrath

I thought this image was clever, even though the smoke is the wrong color: And this one is also worth keeping in mind: Both via Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S. on Facebook Read more

Peter Capaldi’s Character

Last updated on: August 4, 2013 at 2:52 pm By James F. McGrath

Thom Stark pointed out to me that Peter Capaldi's character in World War Z was officially…well, see for yourself: W. H. O. Doctor! How cool is that? Read more

And the Next Doctor Is…

Last updated on: August 4, 2013 at 2:23 pm By James F. McGrath

For those without access to the BBC, the next Doctor after Matt Smith will be… Peter Capaldi More about Capaldi on the BBC Doctor Who blog and IO9. There were some wonderful moments on the show. I particularly liked Colin Baker saying that his idea for his costume was what Christopher Eccleston ended up wearing. I will be trying to re-imagine the Sixth Doctor’s episodes with him dressed that way… The “Keep Calm Don’t Regenerate” t-shirt was also cool. If... Read more

Freedom of Expression and Religion

Last updated on: August 4, 2013 at 8:03 am By James F. McGrath

Butler University’s Seminar on Religion and World Civilization public lecture series for the coming year is on the topic “Freedom of Expression and Religion.” If you click through, you will see that there are four interesting topics lined up: “Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Faith: Understanding the First Amendment and Its Global Implications”; “Islam and Free Expression”; “Mr. Putin Goes to Church: Religion and Freedom of Speech in Modern Russia”; and “Academic Freedom and Faith in Higher Education.” Blog readers will be familiar with... Read more