The first episode of season two of Torchwood makes good use of Jack Harkness’ absence, which quickly ends, but nonetheless is posited and allows for the rest of the team to become much stronger and remain less in Jack’s shadow. The episode, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang,” focuses on a previous partner of Jack’s (in more ways than one) from the time agency. It is a figure he doesn’t trust but is also clearly still attracted to: Captain John Hart, presumably... Read more
I appeared on a local TV program last Sunday, “Religion In The News,” to say a bit about a lecture series being held at Butler University this year on the theme of global Christianity. Here’s the clip! Read more
The final episode of season 1 of Doctor Who was “The Reign of Terror,” in which the Doctor, having decided to return Ian and Barbara to their own time, lands them all in France in the midst of the French Revolution. Most of the various parts of the story, like many of these early ones, is spent caught up in historical events trying to figure out how to get out of those entanglements and imprisonments and back to the TARDIS.... Read more
The episode “The Sensorites” is the first episode in Doctor Who characterized by a plot device that would come to characterize the show, and science fiction more generally: an encounter with aliens who seem scary, grotesque and hostile, and turn out to be something else altogether. The travelers land on a spaceship, the crew of which initially seem dead, but turn out to be in a state of suspended animation. They then learn that the crew is kept trapped there... Read more
As we began reading and discussing Goethe’s Faust in my freshman seminar class, I decided to raise an even bigger question than the ones that we had been tackling so far this semester. I asked them what the meaning of life is. One student raised his hand and said “42.” I had to explain it for some students. But Douglas Adams’ famous treatment of this topic actually fit what I hoped we would talk about nicely. Students proposed answers, in... Read more
In discussing Hume’s Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion in my freshman seminar course, one of the major focal points was inevitably whether God can be thought of as in any way analogous to human beings (or in more technical terms anthropomorphically). We also connected this with Tillich’s treatment of myths as expressions of ultimate concern in the form of stories which talk about God or gods as though like human beings. The ultimate is mysterious, and the mistake is not in... Read more
This last episode of the first season of Torchwood, “End of Days,” focuses on precisely what it sounds like: the strange things that have been happening as a result of the rift in space and time becoming more active are being interpreted by religious groups as portents of “judgment day.” Ianto reads from Daniel, and it is suggested that it seems to fit pretty closely what has been happening, but Jack calls the Bible “superstition” and is confident that this... Read more
One last remaining aspect of the move from Blogger to Patheos has finally been completed. The archives from the old site are now here, and the old address http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com now redirects visitors to the blog’s current location. I would be very grateful if readers could help check that the transfer has gone smoothly by poking around among old posts to see how everything looks. With this change has come one other, which you may or may not have already noticed.... Read more
That question, “Why is Ken Ham believed?”, is an important, insightful and puzzling one raised by RJS on the blog Jesus Creed. As that post, “Anointed? … Evangelicals and Authority 1,” points out: Ken Ham, with no scientific credentials, no credentials in biblical scholarship, no evidence, and no research program, has become the front person, the spokesman for a large segment of evangelicalism. He proves nothing, he asserts what he finds to be truth and tells a story to make... Read more
John Morehead interviewed me about the book I edited, Religion and Science Fiction, for his blog TheoFantastique. The interview has now been posted. Please click through and give it a read! Read more
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