Some more information about the Butler Summer Religion Institute. There is a press release on the Butler web site, and there are also digital copies of a flyer and a brochure which can be circulated to those who are interested. Read more
Some more information about the Butler Summer Religion Institute. There is a press release on the Butler web site, and there are also digital copies of a flyer and a brochure which can be circulated to those who are interested. Read more
Thanks to a grant from Butler University President’s Innovation Fund, the Religion program at Butler University (Department of Philosophy and Religion) is excited to announce the start of the Butler Summer Religion Institute. This program allows students in high school to earn college credit while still in high school. It also provides an opportunity to study religion in an academically-rigorous and non-sectarian way. (Many high schools avoid teaching about religion because of the controversies that are prone to arise around... Read more
Many Christians, depending on their denomination, may have heard the challenge to not simply try to bring people to church, but “bring church to the people.” Apparently the Russian Orthodox Church, with the help of (and in the service of) the Russian military, has found a more literal way of doing that than I ever envisaged: Via Boing Boing, HT Brad Matthies Read more
Today in my class on the Gospel of John we reached the final chapter. One detail in John 21 that has long puzzled commentators is the reference to 153 fish having been caught. Why so specific? Is there some symbolic significance to the number? If so, what is it? Some of the attempt to treat the detail as significant and meaningful have been rather bizarre. Today, a student in my class, Jordan Burt, provided what I consider to be the... Read more
It isn't just the Silence who want the secret kept. There are also many fans that simply don't want to know the Doctor's name. For instance these folks here: I don't blame them. Let's face it, if there is a big reveal on Doctor Who after 50 years of secrecy, and it turns out the Doctor's name is “Billy Bob,” no one is going to be happy. But there are some cool possible names that would not be a disappointment.... Read more
I am sorry that I did not get around to wishing readers a happy St. George's Day until now. Perhaps it ought to be a young-earth creationist holiday. Ken Ham claims that the legends about St. George and the dragon are proof that humans and dinosaurs (including some that breathed fire, if the billboards for the Creation Museum are anything to go by). More evidence that young-earth creationists are promoting fairy tales and myths, if anyone doubted that. The above... Read more
The above image, which a friend shared on Facebook, provides a nice humorous illustration of the way that one can start from one’s beliefs and find confirmation in illogical places. Whatever your views on religion or any other topic, your worldview is not well served by the making of poor arguments. Read more
For those who are students, or who do research and/or write for a living, the data we have – papers that are due, articles that we are working on – is more valuable than the devices we use to write on. And so anyone who is not currently using Dropbox, or Google Drive, or some other such method to automatically synchronize their data not only across devices but to the cloud where a backup is stored, is taking an unnecessary... Read more
Facebook friends have pointed out a few interesting tidbits related to the notion of a global flood in Genesis. One pointed out Genesis 8:1, which says: But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. How does sending a wind cause waters that can cover the highest mountains to “recede”? Where does it recede to? Recede doesn’t mean... Read more
As someone who teaches Bible, this cartoon Hemant Mehta recently shared made me laugh: It is funny that, through a series of twists and turns in the history of language, a reference to something being “Biblical” can turn it into sexual innuendo. This actually illustrates an important point about how languages work, a point often missed by some who read, interpret, and use the Bible. The term “Biblical” might have a particular dictionary definition, but its nuances, and the connotations... Read more
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