The Facebook group Christians Against the Tea Party turned several quotes from a recent blog post of mine into posters, and so I thought I’d share them here. Read more
The Facebook group Christians Against the Tea Party turned several quotes from a recent blog post of mine into posters, and so I thought I’d share them here. Read more
I have said on numerous occasions that Mary Doria Russell’s two novels, The Sparrow and Children of God, are among my favorite works of what I can only call theological science fiction – works in the sci-fi genre that don’t merely tangentially touch on religion, but explore it at the core of their story. Today, SF Signal shared the latest SF Crossing podcast which focuses on The Sparrow. Click through to listen and/or download a copy! Read more
I recently finished reading Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams which was turned into a novel by Gareth Roberts. The novel has all the comedy you would expect from a Doctor Who episode written by Adams and starring Tom Baker – as well as a fitting hommage to Adams. For those who may not be familiar with it, the episode Shada was partially filmed when a strike brought production to a halt, so that it was never... Read more
Jim Linville shared some cartoons which he suggested illustrated the preaching of bibliobloggers. I rather envy Jim West his, since I think it would fit me rather nicely: In case you’re curious but are unlikely to click through, here’s the one he actually assigned to me: Click through to see which one Joel Watts got! Read more
Chris Heard was “inspired” by a recent blog post of mine to share some thoughts on his blog about the Bible and inspiration. First, let me emphasize that, had the terminology of “inspiration” been widely used in the Bible as a way of indicating the distinctive character of sacred texts, I would not have made the proposal that I did, that English speakers “mean what they say” when using the term. If this were a discussion about a Biblical term,... Read more
Some are declaring the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” dead as far as its authenticity is concerned, but at the very least, it seems that the Smithsonian Channel has decided to delay the airing of the documentary about the papyrus fragment. Hence the atrocious four-way pun in the title – it can be referring to the documentary as late, to the entire matter as over and deceased, plus it can also be understood to be referring to the wife of the... Read more
Two other Patheos bloggers, Libby Anne and Fred Clark, have kindly pointed out that we have just entered the month, October 2012, about which writers from Focus on the Family penned a “letter from the future” almost 4 years ago, detailing the changes that would allegedly result if Barack Obama were to become president. Fred points out that they get at most half a point if one deals generously with their 34 predictions. He also notes points that were off-target... Read more
Bob Cargill has posted a wonderful analogy between reception history of the Bible and Star Wars. He makes great points, such as The ‘correct’ interpretation of a myth does not necessarily confirm the historicity of the myth. and Arguing over the best way to interpret a story does not prove the story historical, factual, or true…The debate about a text’s interpretation has absolutely no bearing upon whether the claim is, in fact, factual. This is a crucial point – and the analogy is... Read more
In my freshmen seminar class “Faith, Doubt, and Reason,” we discussed the problem of evil, with the classic statement that (1) divine omnipotence, (2) perfect divine goodness/justice, and (3) the reality of evil are incompatible. Before exploring other possibilities which try to preserve all three, I asked students which they would remove if they had to give up one of the three in order to resolve the problem. They all chose “3” and I must admit that I was surprised.... Read more
Leah Libresco has a post about the nature of blasphemy, in which she shared this image, which I also found shared today on the Atheist Revolution blog : In her post, Libresco asks whether it is possible to commit blasphemy if you are not first convinced of the holiness of that which you then in insult. So, for instance, if you do not embrace the Dark Side of the Force, could you find the above photo blasphemous for its depiction of... Read more
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