As I focus in my classes on the skills needed to search for and find relevant and reliable information, that topic in the news. Bill Tai was quoted in the New York Times today as saying the following: When there is too much information, there is high value in search, navigation and discovery. This is why I focus on information and digital literacy skills in my classes. Several libraries have made what is referred to as the “CRAP Test” available... Read more
Butler University students: Please join President Danko (John Carroll University, BA Religious Studies) and the Butler Religion Faculty for dinner and a discussion on possible career paths with a degree in Religion. Thursday, Jan. 17th, 6:00-7:30 p.m. at the Center for Faith and Vocation (Blue House). Stop in JH202 or email [email protected] to RSVP. Read more
On this day in 1974, Kurt Atterberg, one of my favorite composers, passed away. Since I recently shared his “Sinfonia Funebra” which might be more appropriate to the occasion, I’m sharing his Symphony No.8 which I have not shared previously. Read more
In the country I live in, the vast majority of Christians (assuming one is willing to give that label to those who claim it, even if it seems not to affect their core values) are fundamentally compromised with the spirit of the age, with its values, with its aims and assumptions. Some are so compromised that they line up with the use of secular power to try to accomplish their aims – with the Romans who crucified Jesus rather than... Read more
Someone on Facebook shared this quote attributed to Bruce Lee… Be like water …Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. I liked the sentiment, which is very Taoist. But I added in a comment something... Read more
The start of classes today went well. The only thing that did not go smoothly is that the bookstore ordered copies of a book by Freud as the textbook for my course on the Bible, rather than the one I asked them to. Is there an award for what is perhaps the most literal “Freudian slip” in the history of the term? Unless of course one counts this cartoon: Read more
One reason that some religious believers feel threatened by scientific advances is the belief that, as the mysterious becomes less mysterious, God’s existence or at least God’s involvement in the universe is disproved. But as those who’ve dug deeply into the mysteries of the universe, as we find answers, they lead on to new mysteries which ultimately lead sooner or later to the mystery of existence itself, why anything at all exists. That isn’t proof of God, but it does leave... Read more
A key point I emphasize in my classes is that, just because a range of views about a topic may be held by experts, that does not mean that all views are compatible with the evidence. Nor is it the case that, just because we are uncertain about the answers to some questions, everything is uncertain. The above image featuring a quote from Jerry Coyne makes the point well, I think, in relation to one specific topic about which denialists try... Read more
Today is the first day of classes in the new semester at Butler University. I’m teaching my course on the Bible, an upper-level course on the Gospel of John, and the second semester of my freshman core curriculum course on Faith, Doubt, and Reason. If you teach or are a student, what classes are on your schedule? Read more
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