\u2022 A few weeks ago we looked at Tubal-cain in our Sunday WTF? lectionary<\/a>. Tubal-cain, Genesis 4 says, \u201cmade all kinds of bronze and iron tools.\u201d<\/p>\n That passage is helpful when establishing when this part of Genesis was written. The writer had seen bronze and iron tools, and was accustomed enough to them that they assumed such things had been around for all of time. (The early Iron Age didn\u2019t have a lot of museums one could visit to learn about the very long history of the Bronze Age, so the writer couldn\u2019t have known that bronze and iron tools weren\u2019t developed\u00a0at the same time or invented by the same guy.)<\/p>\n Attributing the invention of \u201call kinds of bronze and iron tools\u201d to one person seven generations after Adam also creates a problem for the selective \u201cliteralism\u201d of young-Earth creationists like Ken Ham and Al Mohler. It means they have to argue that the Stone Age was only a few short centuries long.<\/p>\n Joel Duff of Naturalis Historia has pointed out that the vast numbers of Stone Age artifacts we\u2019ve found creates a pretty huge problem for such young-earthers<\/a>. Terry Mortenson of Answers in Genesis attempted a response to this point. It didn\u2019t go well. Jonathan Baker of Age of Rocks<\/a> and Adam Benton of EvoAnth<\/a> took the time to shred Mortenson\u2019s reply.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cI\u2019m not a violent person.\u201d Not personally. David Daleiden positions himself as the Gerry Adams of Operation Rescue<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Alan Bean offers a long, fascinating reflection<\/a> on the divergent paths of evangelist Billy Graham and his former mentor, the apostate evangelist Chuck Templeton. (Well, it\u2019s fascinating to me,<\/em> anyway, although admittedly not everyone is fascinated by the history of mid-20th-century white evangelicalism.) Here\u2019s the crux of it: \u201cIn the end, neither Billy nor Chuck could believe that Jesus redefines the nature of God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Ruth Moon writes about how a Seattle CEO\u2019s \u201c$70,000 Minimum Wage Brings Bible Parable to Life (Unfortunately)<\/a>\u201d noting the clear parallels between this real-world story of crabs-in-a-bucket resentment and anti-solidarity and Jesus\u2019 story of the workers in the vineyard.<\/p>\n Atrios\u2019 one-word summary<\/a> of that story from Seattle is more to the point. That one word is probably\u00a0also the most accurate exegesis of Jesus\u2019\u00a0parable I\u2019ve ever read.<\/p>\n \u2022 Hemant Mehta shares the news that one Alabama sheriff\u2019s office is now painting their vehicles with Bible verses<\/a>. He argues, rightly, that this is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also dishonest. The cars bear the phrase \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers\u201d and the Bible reference \u201cMatthew 5:9.\u201d This is the wrong Beatitude for Alabama law enforcement. Their motto should be Matthew 5:11: \u201cBlessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely.\u201d That\u2019s how police do things in Alabama<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n A police officer in\u00a0Alabama\u00a0proposed murdering a black resident and creating bogus evidence to suggest the killing was in self-defense, the Guardian<\/em> has learned.<\/p>\n Officer Troy Middlebrooks kept his job and continues to patrol Alexander City after authorities there paid the man $35,000 to avoid being publicly sued over the incident. Middlebrooks, a veteran of the US Marines, said the man \u201cneeds a god damn bullet\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAnd before the police got here, I\u2019d fucking put marks all over my shit and make it look like he was trying to fucking kill me. I god damn guarantee you,\u201d Middlebrooks said. \u201cWhat would it look like? Self fucking defense. Fuck that piece of shit.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u2022 Years ago<\/a> I tried (and failed) to post one of my Favoritest Things \u2014 a video of Kurt Vonnegut performing his lecture\/comedy skit on the shape of stories. Open Culture<\/a> informs me that this is, happily, at last available on YouTube, and here it is<\/a>:<\/p>\n![\"ihopgc1\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2015\/08\/ihopgc1-300x180.png\")
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