Doctor Who returned today with the long-awaited episode “Let’s Kill Hitler.” The show is not only avoiding doing obvious things with such a title, but is also delivering answers to questions it had previously raised, while raising new ones – in other words, it is full speed ahead doing all the things that fans love about Doctor Who. Spoilers await in the remainder of this post, and so if you have not yet seen the episode, and want to watch... Read more
I have heard people say that a fast moving burst of hot air is coming up the East Coast and is troubling residents further North in places like New York. I am pretty sure that this refers to one of the following, but I am not sure which… Read more
There isn’t one. But before someone predictably either blames Hurricane Irene’s impact on New York on gay marriage, or fails to treat a last minute swerve of the hurricane away from the path of New York as indication of divine approval of gay marriage, I thought I would share this snarky poster, which says everything that needs to be said about the sort of image of God you end up with if you attribute forces of nature to a personal... Read more
For some, the similarities between mythicists and creationists outweigh the differences, while for others the reverse seems to be true. The latter tend to get very upset when the comparison is made. And so perhaps it is only fair that I emphasize from time to time one of the differences between mythicists and creationists. Having been one of the latter for a while during my teens, and having interacted critically with members of both constituencies in recent years, I think I finally... Read more
Michael Halcomb was the first biblioblogger to break the news that Charles Kingsley Barrett has passed away at the age of 94. C. K. Barrett was Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham until his retirement in 1982, when James D. G. Dunn, my Doktorvater, became the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity. When I was a student in Durham, well after his retirement, Barrett would still attend New Testament seminars at the Department of Theology from time to time, and... Read more
Here’s the trailer for a new movie focused on the attempt of religious fundamentalists to hijack science education. The film is called “No Dinosaurs in Heaven.” Read more
I just received word that Religion and Science Fiction is now available for Kindle through Amazon.com. The price for the Kindle edition is almost as low as the discounted price for which you can still get the print edition until the end of this month, via the publisher’s web site. Use the discount coupon code RASF during checkout to receive 40% off. That offer expires 8/31/2011 – in other words, in only a few days from now. So if you... Read more
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Thanks for my friend and colleague Brad Matthies for drawing attention to some online sources that address zombies, but which I think could be used to good humorous effect in a class explaining research skills and the need to find reliable sources of information. First, there’s an online comic which uses the scenario of a zombie attack to explain about all the useful things one can find in a university library. It’s called “Library of the Living Dead”: Then, there’s... Read more
A Facebook thread asked why Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, having been the dictator of Libya for so long, never arranged for his promotion above the rank of colonel. It’s a good and amusing question, and I was surprised that no one to my knowledge had asked it before. Seriously, why not promote himself to general? The same thread then mentioned a couple of other people who never got promoted. Why is the cereal still Cap’n Crunch after all these years? Why,... Read more
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