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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Christian Carnival CCXXIII – Tabernacle Edition
Welcome to the Christian Carnival, tabernacle edition. Why use the tabernacle? In my teaching I have found that the tabernacle and its services are almost infinitely useful, often illustrating things that one might not assume from the text. I identify as carefully as I can when I’m being strictly exegetical, and when I’m using the…
How it Happened vs. Probabilities
I may be hopelessly naive in the matter of probability, though it is the one area of math that I have actually studied, but I am simply not terribly impressed with probability arguments. That’s probably (!) a major reason why I’m not impressed with intelligent design (ID). I’m particularly not impressed with probabilities calculated for…
Next Christian Carnival Will be Here
I’m hosting Christian Carnival CCXXIII here. It will be posted later today. I actually cut off submissions this morning, so if you had your post in any time last night, it will get in there. I’ll be posting from somewhere out of my office, so corrections will have to wait at least until evening.
Distinguishing Freedom and Ability
I have always preferred our classic statements of rights, such as the bill of rights, to such statements as Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms.” What interests me is that while our classic statements of rights indicate things that the government is not permitted to prevent you from doing, the latter two freedoms from Roosevelt’s list, and especially…
My Advice for Florida Creationists
Which, for those in doubt, includes advocates of intelligent design (ID). I know they won’t take it, but here it is: Just tell the truth. John West, over at Evolution News and Views, has written a quite disingenuous post in which he wonders about the motives of advocates in the Florida House who insisted on…
Hosting Bible Translations Wiki
Updated: I added one more topic for the wiki, and also changed the links to point to mybibleversion.com which is where I think this belongs. The old URLs are redirected. Before I discuss this, it is not a diversion from personalizing the MyBibleVersion.com site. In fact, it is now a part of that process. “This”…
Faith and Imagination
I haven’t been blogging here for the last couple of days. Even though I only do network management/maintenance work part time, every so often I end up with full days away from my computer, and thus likely to write much less. I must confess that my market value in technical work (I have my own…
Intellectual and Spiritual Independence Redux
James McGrath has posted a Challenge to Anti-Intellectual Christian Fundamentalists. I think it’s a good one. I posted on this before, though from a different angle. I want to highlight here an important question. Where in scripture or Christian tradition do we get a high value for intellectual independence? Certainly there is a value for…
HRC Panders on Oil
There is always profit for politicians in pandering to the short term interests of the voters. That’s because there are enough voters who simply don’t understand their long term interest or who don’t care enough about the future to take it into consideration. The stimulus package is one such case of pandering, and all the…
Psalm 104 Article
Since Psalm 104 is in the lectionary for Pentecost (May 11), I thought I’d take this opportunity to link again to my essay on that Psalm which dates from when I was working on my MA. I created a critical (or reconstructed) Hebrew text, provided a translation and notes, and did some analysis on the…
Question Everything, Including the Bible
James McGrath (whose comments are well worth reading) pointed me to this post, and I responded here.
Police Can’t Afford to Jump to Conclusions
. . . but reporters apparently can. I’m going to embed the fox video that set this off. I saw it on the TV while eating my lunch, and then looked it up for your viewing pleasure (or not). I’m pretty tense about any government official overstepping the bounds of their authority. Police face great…
Question Everything!
Via Exploring Our Matrix, I found this post at Think Christian. Many Christians believe that one should never question the Bible, especially if one is a Bible teacher. I know this to be true, because I’m a Bible teacher, and I question the Bible with some vigor, and not only do I not answer all…
An Example of Archaic Words – 1 Samuel 9:9
In a comment to a previous post, someone brought up the case of Saul and the seer. In this passage we have the parenthetical note following the reference by one of the characters to a seer, indicating that a prophet was formerly called a seer. This was provided as an example of how to handle…
Another Good Review of Expelled!
. . . from someone who has seen it, no less! It’s on The Creation of an Evolutionist, which blog also goes on my blogroll. (From a comment on an earlier post.)
We Can’t Have Acquittals
. . . is what the former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, Air Force Colonel Colonel Morris Davis informed a court there he was told by superiors, according to the Washington Post. I do believe that we will need some special options for dealing with terror suspects taken in war. Many are not recognizing the…
Perspective on Vocabulary and Genre in Genesis 1-11
Just how does one go about determining how to read these chapters? I’ve talked in previous posts about literary types and historicity, but this is more about approach. I have both heard and read places where people state that these chapters are obviously narrative history because they “sound like it.” But how should one’s ears,…
A Conservative Speaks on Intelligent Design
. . . in NRO. Quoth he: “The ‘intelligent design’ hoax is not merely non-science, nor even merely anti-science; it is anti-civilization.”
Tolerance: A Value, Not an Absolute
In watching some of the material on Dr. Jeremiah Wright today, I’m reminded of the potential problem of tolerance–getting it above its proper rank as a value. I have been confronted numerous times in face to face discussions with the statement that I cannot be truly tolerant, because to be tolerant, I must tolerate intolerance….
Yoko Ono Files Suit Against Expelled!
More information at Freespace.
Good Sermon Science Comments
Today I attended Pensacola’s First United Methodist Church where Dr. Wesley Wachob is pastor. He recently saw the movie Expelled!, and though he said he recommended people see it, he proceeded to dump pretty heavily on the movie’s content. He encouraged the church’s young people to become “brilliant scientists” and noted that there is no…
MyBibleVersion.com Progress Update
I haven’t posted about the changes to MyBibleVersion.com for some time, so I thought I’d let you all know I’m still working on it. I don’t expect to roll it out until my site is moved to a new, upgraded physical server which should happen any day now. It’s been “any day now” for a…
Bill Moyers Interviews Dr. Jeremiah Wright
I think we all draw boundary lines between those with whom we disagree, yet consider valid voices in our culture or community, and those whose views we think are so far off the map that conversation cannot continue. For many Americans, Dr. Jeremiah Wright has fallen into the second category. I would suggest, however, that…
Origin Models: An Abundance of Christian Views
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is an interesting philosophy in politics and war. Usually the amity between “enemies of enemies” lasts about as long as hostilities between those particular enemies. Wesley Elsberry has posted an excellent article on problems with the “two model” approach to the creation-evolution debate. To summarize, though you…