Ian recently wrote a post on his blog, “Why God Doesn’t Explain Anything.” It reminded me of a post I wrote quite a number of years ago, and reposted a couple of years ago, with the title “God is a Mystery, Not an Explanation.” It starts off like this: The world we live in is full of mysteries. When we envisage the self-replicating molecules that drive life on this planet, we wonder how they could have arisen, and we seek... Read more
Those of you who connect to my blog via Facebook (whether on the Exploring Our Matrix page or my own personal profile) or Twitter will have witnessed some of the inadequacies of the NetworkedBlogs app, which has been offering dead links on some occasions and duplicate postings on others. I have deactivated the NetworkedBlogs syndication for Exploring Our Matrix and will be trying out alternatives – RSS Graffiti and TwitterFeed. I will be grateful if those who connect with me... Read more
The latest cartoon from David Hayward is interesting to think about in connection with the sorts of rhetorical claims one sometimes encounters from conservative Christians regarding American society. “Keep Christ in Christmas” they may say, or “Put prayer back in public schools.” What they often fail to notice is that they have only allowed selective bits of Jesus and his teachings into their churches and their individual lives, and even those are sometimes interpreted against the grain of his likely... Read more
This coming academic year I will be teaching a class that runs in parallel to an annual public lecture series. The coming year’s topic is “Religion and Freedom of Speech.” It will look at the first amendment, specific examples related to Islam and to Russia, and academic freedom. In relation to that last point, here are some thoughts that were recently posted on the Patheos blog Cross Examined, related to the recent experience of Mike Licona, which parallels that of... Read more
How do we know things about the past? Whether in history or in the natural sciences, it involves working with surviving data and using deductive reasoning and logical inference. Dennis Venema has been blogging about “Genomes as Ancient Texts.” In the latest installment, he provides diagrams illustrating how scientists deduce that two organisms are related in a particular way. Here’s one example: Anyone from my own area of expertise who has studied textual criticism will recognize the line of argument... Read more
All Christians and all atheists do not disagree about everything. For instance, I agree very strongly with Hemant Mehta that this church needs to learn how to use quotation marks correctly: There are in fact whole blogs and web sites dedicated to the misuse of quotation marks. It is cases like these, when people seem to think they indicate emphasis, that the results tend to be unintentionally hilarious. Read more
Another gem from TheologyGrams. Read more
It was interesting watching The Three Doctors again recently. As a classic episode I have seen several times before, it struck me just how inadequate the special effects were for expressing the concepts the writers wanted to integrate into the story. A singularity that Omega had managed to harness looked like a flow of steam. Compare this image from “The Three Doctors” with one from “Journey to the Center of the TARDIS” and our glimpse of the Eye of Harmony... Read more
In my Sunday school class last weekend, the discussion quickly moved from a discussion of the atonement to a specific focus on whether God suffers or can suffer. A number of interesting observations were made, but one seemed particularly worth sharing. Following a discussion of why some consider it better to be above suffering (and the connections with other persons that cause us suffering) than to suffer (and be connected and in relationship), a retired pastor in the class suggested... Read more
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HT Hemant Mehta. Those familiar with the academic study of the Bible will know that people have been leaving comments on the commandments for as long as we can trace. We find them embedded in literature which does not present them without comment. And then we have the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the discussions and commentaries practical, devotional, allegorizing, or academic stretching from antiquity down to the present day, and showing no sign of stopping. Yes, there is room for... Read more