While my excuse for most things today will be the fact that I am still without electricity at home, most of the rest of the world has an even better excuse they can use, as illustrated in this comic from XKCD: HT Jerry Coyne Read more
While my excuse for most things today will be the fact that I am still without electricity at home, most of the rest of the world has an even better excuse they can use, as illustrated in this comic from XKCD: HT Jerry Coyne Read more
This Doctor Who episode from the Jon Pertwee era, “The Mind of Evil,” offers interesting explorations of religious themes, as well as some intriguing connections with (or perhaps disconnects from) more recent episodes. The Doctor and Jo Grant go to see a demonstration at a prison of a device called the Keller Machine, which supposedly removes “evil impulses” from a human being. The reference to “evil impulses” is reminiscent of the Rabbinic term yetzer ha-ra, and the episode raises the... Read more
I hope that everyone in the world is aware that the NASA Mars rover Curiosity is due to reach Mars in a matter of hours. I am writing this in a brief visit to my office at work, having no electricity at home, and thus no internet. Hopefully I will get back here sometime tomorrow morning, but until then, I will be filled with curiosity…about Curiosity. All of you who are able to watch live coverage tonight via TV or... Read more
A Facebook conversation (if one can call it that) in which I recently became embroiled reminds me of how I used to approach discussions with those who disagreed with me. It was OK to lump my opponents with the worst behavior among those who agreed with them, but any attempt to reverse that logic was dismissed. And it was no problem to deny that I had earlier said certain things, if it later became clear that they were problematic or... Read more
Last night a big storm passed through Indianapolis, bringing down trees and branches all throughout my neighborhood and many others. I had some blog posts already scheduled in advance, and so things have probably seemed to be normal. But how soon things will actually be normal depends on the power company. I will keep you posted, if and when I can! Until then, if my blogging ends up being unusually little in the coming days, please console yourselves with posts... Read more
I borrowed the movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen from my local library, having seen the trailer on another DVD. I don’t remember hearing about the movie anywhere else, and so I suspect that many readers may likewise never have heard about it. The movie focused on religion and faith more than I expected it to. Two British characters mention (upon witnessing Yemeni public expression of religiosity) that neither knows anyone who goes to church any more, reflecting Britain’s increasing secularization.... Read more
When Doctor Who returned to begin the era of the Third Doctor, with the episode Spearhead from Space, it really started with a bang. This episode introduced the Autons and the Nestenes, and I am struck by the fact that when Doctor Who started up again after its long break, the writers and producers chose to start again with that same foe. Perhaps it was the resounding success of the era of Jon Pertwee playing the Doctor, which injected new... Read more
The program book for the Society of Biblical Literature 2012 Annual Meeting and the program book for the American Academy of Religion 2012 Annual Meeting, which will take place together in Chicago in November, are both now online. I’ll be reading one paper and serving on one panel at the SBL conference, and will be part of a group exploring the possibility of creating a new program unit at AAR. Here are the details of the sessions: S18-134 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism... Read more
The Bible itself raises challenges to the way conservative Christians in our time tend to understand what the Bible is, as supposedly an inerrant text that can eliminate doubt from one's life. The Bible itself tells story after story about people for whom doubt was part of their spiritual life. There is something profoundly ironic taking place, when Matthew 28:17 tells us that some who shared in the resurrection experiences referred to as “seeing Jesus” nevertheless doubted, and yet so... Read more
Here’s a comment that was left on my blog today: how the divine pen of Michel Nostradamus crushed the international atheist movement http://dissidentphilosophy.lif… for lies on top of lies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v… do you think you can threaten my right to FREE SPEECH? what if I told you that I am not who you think I am…. Not Dennis Markuze – but a FAN! _________________ The commenter seems to have been using something to mask their IP address, since it showed it... Read more
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