I've seen lots of science fiction versions of the Last Supper: LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars. But this one is new to me. I found it via The Daily Dalek on Facebook, which is also a new discovery for me. Also for Doctor Who fans, IO9 had the latest Doctor Who news, with information (spoilers) about upcoming titles of Doctor Who episodes this season. This quote made me laugh: Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill's final episode is called “The Angels... Read more
I have found myself blogging on the topic of same-sex marriage and related subjects a lot lately. Perhaps I should try to take a more Biblical approach to the matter in the future – in other words, not talk about it much, if at all. 🙂 But perhaps I can use this opportunity to share one more thought on the subject. Among the Greeks and Romans, same-sex relationships between men were common, so much so that the entire Greek culture... Read more
In my current teaching, I focus increasing amounts of attention on the discerning use of online sources of information. People no longer rack their brains to recall facts learned in school. They will pull out a device and look up what they want to know. And so, while some factual information is crucial in order to be discerning in this way – one cannot spot counterfeit money without experience of handling the real thing – the skill of evaluating sources... Read more
Here’s a link to A. J. Jacobs giving a TED talk which lasts for roughly 17 minutes, talking about his projects, focusing in particular on his book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (HT Nijay Gupta) Read more
I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to do a blog review of the most recent version of the famous BibleWorks software, BibleWorks 9. This post will offer just a few introductory remarks about the initial experience of installation and first impressions. I will then go on to blog about specific features and offer a detailed review in multiple posts. BibleWorks 9 makes a good impression even from the very beginning during installation. There are nice little things... Read more
IO9 (in an article entitled “How to distinguish crap denialism from legitimate scientific debate”) linked to an article on the NIH website by Wendee Holtcamp, with the title “Flavors of Uncertainty: The Difference between Denial and Debate.” Both focus on the challenge the media and the general public faces in our day and age, when (to quote Holtcamp) “essentially, everyone has a printing press.” The articles feature this helpful list of common denialist tactics offered by Sean Carroll. But as the article... Read more
First, a quote, and then some reflections on it: Sincere seekers are often painfully aware of holes in their current philosophies — and every worldview that pretends to answer every important question does indeed have holes somewhere because it’s overreaching. So a worldview that seems to fill the irritating holes in a previously held philosophy can be very appealing, especially if it claims not to be subject to human limitations. — Mary Johnson, in an interview with Hemant Mehta I... Read more
Steve Douglas drew my attention to the above comic from SMBC. As someone who deals both with denialists who attack mainstream science, and denialists who attack mainstream history, I don’t know that I think one is worse than the other. And since both evolutionary biology and ancient history deal largely with theories that make sense of piecemeal data within a convincing explanatory framework, both leave plenty of room for denialists of either sort to engage in the sort of tactics... Read more
It seems that I am not alone in drawing the conclusion that young-earth creationism is better labeled “demonic” than “Christian.” Blogger Rebecca Trotter left a comment on my blog, indicating that an encounter with the Institute for Creation Research led her to draw that conclusion. In the blog post describing what happened, she also shared this nice little image (originally found at Thinking Sci-Fi): I know that some people consider this sort of rhetoric too harsh. But let’s be honest.... Read more
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WWJCOB? (What Would Jesus Comment on Blogs?)
There are many people in our time who claim to follow Jesus and to be seeking to emulate him. But it is clear that not everyone who has adopted such an approach to life has given thought to its implications for comments left on blogs. I wonder whether this is a lack of attention on their part, or a lack of imagination – or perhaps simply a rather different imagination. After all, if one reads the description of Jesus' preaching... Read more