Like John Byron, I have yet to see any episode of the History Channel miniseries “The Bible.” But I found the time to watch Stephen Colbert’s treatment of it on The Colbert Report and you can appreciate the humor completely without having seen the miniseries. Here’s a sample available on YouTube. Click through to watch the whole segment. Read more
Doing the right thing may cost people friends. That has always been the case. Particularly in view of my post earlier today, expressing the wish that more Christians would stand up for the marginalized and practice courageously inclusive love, instead of standing against science or engaging in other such distractions, I felt the need to comment on the image that I’ve seen a few times on Facebook, in which people have said that it may cost them friends, but they... Read more
I am grateful to Michael Zimmerman and others who have pointed out that the $10,000 prize offered to someone who proves evolution before a judge is (1) just the same guy who has made this offer in the past, (2) an offer from someone who does not understand what evolution is, (3) an offer that he backtracks on, and (3) the guy seems to be completely out of his mind. Click through to read Michael Zimmerman’s Huffington Post article about... Read more
I'm not sure that Daleks really work as a symbol of any sort of equality, which is why I made this (and made it my banner on Facebook): HT George Takei for the first two. Read more
Someone asked me if I could do a post indicating what, if anything, I appreciate about young-earth creationists. You may be surprised that this post is not just a blank page. The point of the request was in the spirit of the video that Brian McLaren made called “Reconciliation.” In the video, McLaren says the following: So I think the six-day creation people — I think they're wrong; I think they are misguided. I love them; I respect them. If... Read more
I am sharing a link to Maud Newton’s recent piece in the New York Times Magazine, not only because I am quoted in it, but because its subject matter is interesting – the move of Christian fundamentalism from anti-Judaism to something that at least looks rather different. Before you ask, yes, I’m disappointed that she got the title of my book wrong, and put it in quotation marks rather than italics! But I think you’ll agree nevertheless that the piece’s topic... Read more
Due to some sort of glitch on Amazon.com, my ebook The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have to Do with Faith? (Patheos Press, 2012) was not available for purchase. I am not sure how long this was the case, but I thought I should announce here that it is available again, still at the low price of $2.99. It is also available in Nook format. The book focuses not only on the burial of Jesus, but uses that as an... Read more
A question about 2 Timothy 3:16 from a commenter inspired (pun intended) me to think about the text in a different light. One possible background for the rare term θεόπνευστος (theopneustos), sometimes rendered as “God-breathed,” is the story in Genesis 2, in which God breathes the breath of life into the human being he has made, and the human being becomes a living soul. If that is the background, then the analogy is interesting to explore. A human being without the... Read more
I thought I’d contribute to the meme that seems to have taken off featuring Brad Stevens’ facial expression at one point during the game against Marquette. For the background, see my earlier post about a campus religious group inviting a representative of the young-earth creationist organization Answers in Genesis to speak at their meeting on the Butler University campus. Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In