I already posted today on Rick Warren's inaccurate as well as unhelpful tweet, blaming the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado on teaching students that they “are no different than animals,” which seems to be a lame jibe at evolution, even though it shows a failure to grasp what biology actually says. Warren is wrong about what evolution and other elements of modern biology say. We are animals, but no biologist I know of says that we are no different from... Read more
I am very disappointed that Rick Warren would use the occasion of the horrible tragedy in Aurora, Colorado to make an inane, stupid swipe at evolution. This poster with his tweet in the middle makes the point well: Humans are observably like other animals on this planet: we are based on the same genetic code, we eat, we procreate, we breathe, and so on and so on. But humans are also observably unique among animals on this planet: we... Read more
I am grateful to Eerdmans for sending me a complimentary review copy of Gregory Mobley’s book The Return of the Chaos Monsters: and Other Backstories of the Bible. Since the book has an overarching focus on stories I thought it might be appropriate to begin this review with a story, a personal anecdote. It is a testimony to the book’s intriguing approach and delightful prose that, having taken the book along with me to read on a church trip to King’s... Read more
I am grateful to Patheos for the privilege of being part of its book club discussion of Tim Stafford’s recent book, Miracles: A Journalist Looks at Modern Day Experiences of God’s PowerMiracles: A Journalist Looks at Modern Day Experiences of God’s Power (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2012). The book offers the perspective of a Christian journalist on the subject – not primarily seeking to collect miracle stories and to assess the evidence for them, but rather the author aims to offer... Read more
First, let’s make sure that the president of the United States is quoted correctly and in full (unlike in Bristol Palin’s recent blog post and so many similar corners of the internet): Now, some thoughts relating to those who have been complaining about what the president said. I can see how all sorts of arrogant and prideful people could complain, but I honestly don’t see how anyone who is a Christian, and grasps even superficially what the Bible says, could... Read more
Many readers will know that a while back I worked on developing a prototype of an online Interactive Bible textbook (which you can still read and explore online). It covered introductory topics and I wrestled with how to tackle the next section, starting with the early chapters of Genesis. As I will be doing further work on this in preparation for offering my course on the Bible online next summer, I was delighted when Jim West shared an idea for... Read more
Since someone made this image and shared it on Facebook, but with the quote attributed to someone else. Since the quote is from me (made in this post), I thought I’d modify it in the hope that eventually one or more with the correct attribution will predominate… Read more
A substantial part of the Christian blogosphere has been distracted from further discussion of Ross Douthat’s piece on Liberal Christianity, by a conservative Christian blog post about the novel Fifty Shades of Grey. I have not read the novel, but from reading the blog post in question, the reactions to it, and the follow-up from the Gospel Coalition’s Jared Wilson, we see clearly that the well-being of conservative to fundamentalist forms of Christianity is not at all a given. Let... Read more
Paul, in his time, made a case for relaxing Scriptural stipulations about the need for anyone within Abraham's household to be circumcised in order to be part of the covenant (Genesis 17:9-14). He did the same with regard to the people of God being called to observe the things written in the Law of Moses, i.e. Scripture as it existed in his time. When he did so, he himself could not simply declare his own writings Scripture so that it... Read more
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