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
One of the most annoying things about dealing with Protestants is their insistence on Biblical authority paired with their inability to agree on what the Bible says. Combined with the tendency to simply assert their supposedly biblical doctrines without “showing their work,” so to speak, leaves one with the feeling that the Bible is simply a ventriloquist dummy that will always agree with the speaker. — “Meghan Kelly Gets It” a post on the blog Unreasonable Faith Read more
Many will point to Jesus' words about divorce, in the context of which he quotes Genesis 2, as evidence that Jesus believed Adam and Eve were literal people, and will then on that basis argue against modern biology, or claim this proves that he supported the view of marriage as involving only one man and one woman. The evidence does not support the claim that Jesus took that text literally, but in fact, suggests precisely the opposite. Here's the passage... Read more
The quotation comes from my previous post. Read more
For those who know the English language well, the statement in the title, “young-earth creationism is a cult,” may seem obvious. One definition of a “cult” is “a system of religious beliefs and ritual” which of course young-earth creationism is. But I mean the statement in reference to that more sinister meaning of “cult,” as referring to a group that uses manipulative tactics to lure people in and keep them in. I mean it even in the specifically Christian usage... Read more
In an era when miscommunications abound, an antidote is needed. And so here is Victor Borge giving his famous suggestions for accomplishing clearer communication through spoken punctuation. Enjoy! Read more
Contemporary conservative Christian exegetes claim both inerrancy and literalism as hermeneutical principles, but will always sacrifice the latter to the former. The “this generation” of Mark 13:30 that will see the Son of Man’s return, for example, must be read as referring not to the generation listening to Jesus, or Mark’s original audience, but to the reader of the 21st century. — Theogore M. Vial, “Introduction” in Ethical Monotheism, Past and Present: Essays in Honor of Wendell S. Dietrich (Providence:... Read more
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