There are many books about the early chapters of Genesis, and many books introducing readers to the scientific understanding of the cosmos and our place in it. But there are few which actually try to combine the two aims into one. Karl Giberson’s book, Seven Glorious Days: A Scientist Retells the Genesis Creation Story, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to participate in the Patheos Book Club discussion of this book. The book opens with a brief presentation... Read more
Tim Bulkeley will be hosting the next BS Carnival on his blog Sansblogue, and he has issued a call for submissions. Please submit links to him about any posts you’d like to see in his round-up at the end of the month, whether they are on this blog or any other. Read more
The New York Times has an article today about the tendency of candidates in Brazil to adopt creative and at times outlandish pseudonyms. From that article I learned that “Christ of Jerusalem” lost an election back in 2008, while Batman and a couple of James Bonds are currently on various ballots. The appearance of a “Christ” on the ballot got me thinking. There are plenty of people who say that their true allegiance is to Jesus, and they will even make... Read more
Ian has a further detailed explanation of Bayes’ Theorem on his blog. It problematizes Richard Carrier’s use of it in relation to history in general, and the historical Jesus in particular. I am also grateful to Nick Covington for sharing this video, which shows more of what Richard Carrier thinks about the figure of Jesus than he sometimes explicitly says on his blog or in other places: The slides are available online. You can see some of the glaring problems... Read more
When I shared images suggesting that Jesus might have been a liberal Jew or Jewish liberal, it generated interesting discussion. So I thought I would share these and see what people think of them: I toyed with titling this post The First “Occupy David Street” because that is one famous shopping street in modern-day old Jerusalem. But I suspect that “Occupy Wall Street” works every bit as well, since if there were people engaging in commerce in or near to... Read more
Wishing those who celebrate Rosh Hashanah a Happy New Year! Read more
I made the above image to poke fun at how some have reacted to the recent Dr. Pepper advertisement. If you have not yet seen it, just Google Dr. Pepper and evolution and you should find online discussions of the topic. Read more
Tonight’s episode of Doctor Who, “A Town Called Mercy,” is a treasure trove of material for discussion for those interested in the intersection of Doctor Who and religion. What follows includes SPOILERS and so if you have yet to see the episode and don’t want to know what happens, bookmark this post and read it later. I won’t discuss everything, but I will discuss several key points. The Doctor has warn a Stetson before, not only in “The Impossible Astronaut”... Read more
A commenter wrote the following on a recent post: I personally think the Apostle's Creed should be thrown out. There is ample evidence to refute some of the literal claims it makes. Also, there is nothing in the Apostle's Creed that Satan himself could not claim to believe — so how does the Apostle's Creed separate followers of Christ from not followers? The creed is devoid of any mention of Love. The creed seems more like a Satan inspired distraction... Read more
Eruesso shared this tattoo of Spock depicted in imagery typically associated with Jesus: He said he’ll leave it to me to decipher it (presumably not the text, which is “Live Long and Prosper” in Spanish, but the significance of the whole thing). If he expects me to explain why someone would etch this permanently onto their leg, then I can’t help. But there is certainly much that one could say about the role of Spock in relation to religion and... Read more
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