As mentioned previously, Nick Norelli posted a very detailed and, from my perspective, very fair and useful review of my book, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. There have been more positive reviews that did not leave me feeling as satisfied with the level of engagement as Nick’s did. I am sure that no one will be surprised that I do not entirely agree with Nick’s criticisms at every point. And so I wish to respond to... Read more

I became aware of David Fitzgerald’s book Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All as a result of Hemant Mehta holding a giveaway on his blog. Later, Answers in Genesis Busted pointed out that there is a video of Fitzgerald speaking at Skepticon. In his talk, Fitzgerald says that if you don’t like the talk, you won’t like the book. And so rather than looking at it as having wasted an hour from my life listening to... Read more

Ari explains why absence of evidence for historicity is not the same thing as evidence of invention.Lauri Lebo predicts attacks on science this year.Bob Cargill talks about the new mythology-based theme park that is coming to Kentucky.Richard Hall explains why the coldest winter in a long time in Britain doesn’t provide evidence against global warming.Phil Plait shares breaking news that the British Medical Journal calls Andrew Wakefield (an important figure in the antivaccination movement) a fraud.The American School of Classical... Read more

I was reminded recently of the story “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov. It explores the intersection between religion and science fiction in an intriguing fashion (and presumably served as the inspiration for George Zebrowski’s novel Macrolife). I discovered that the story is available online, both the original text and as a graphic novel (although the latter is not a good quality scan). If you’ve never read the story, I highly recommend it. And once you’ve done so, you can ask... Read more

Does anyone have any thoughts, or recommendations of publications to read, on the subject of why Josephus fails to mention Christianity in his listing of Jewish “philosophies”? He can scarcely have been unaware of the movement’s existence, whatever one thinks of the authenticity of some original form of the Testimonium Flavianum, which in its extant form mentions the “tribe of Christians.” After the events that transpired in Rome in Nero’s time, could anyone who in Rome for a significant amount of... Read more

I had been hoping to listen to the interview with Richard Carrier on the blog Common Sense Atheism ever since I learned about it via Answers in Genesis Busted, Richard’s own blog, and a commenter here. Fortunately today I noticed that there is a transcript, which meant that I could read it, which takes less time than listening. The central point is that Richard Carrier is seeking to quantify historical probabilities in more concrete, mathematical terms – in terms of... Read more

My colleague Brad Matthies shared a link to a bit of library science fiction in the Chronicle of Higher Education. It is an obituary, written in 2050, in the wake of the passing away of…the academic library. Brad also shared links to two articles about Wikipedia in academic settings. Both appear in the online journal First Monday and thus are freely accessible without an academic library, I ought to point out. Also related to digital scholarship is the new blog dedicated... Read more

Clayboy has a post on how what we already think determines how we interpret new information and evidence. Roger Olson’s post on theological biases explores similar territory.Martin Marty points out how those Christians who most vocally oppose contemporary media and cultural trends are often simultaneously those who have bought into them the most. C. J. O’Brien discusses the attribution of natural processes to God. Jesus Creed continues its journey through Denis O. Lamoureux’s book, highlighting in this installment his responses... Read more

Several bits of Star Wars related humor have popped up on blogs today. First, Aaron Rathburn shares a definition of Awesome: Stephen Smuts shared this video of Darth Benny-Hinn. Man, can he wield a lightsaber: And there’s also a video with Jon Stewart about Barack Obama as Luke Skywalker. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Barack Obama Is Luke Skywalker www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on... Read more

in the book which was just released, In the Light of Evolution: Essays from the Laboratory and Field, is available online as a pdf. Carl Zimmer’s chapter The chapter explains how the study of evolution in the present day is far better understood than in Darwin’s time, due to our knowledge about genetics and the experiments have been done that allow us to witness and study evolution in the laboratory. This is courtesy of the NCSE which also has a number of... Read more