Rose Colored Glasses?
I’m working on a long post on 2 Corinthians 5, but in the meantime, try answering some of these questions.
Of Science, Faith, and Feelings
Practically everyone today is heavily dependent on the results on the work of scientists. We are quite content to trust the work of scientists when we climb aboard airplanes, drive our cars, or post blog entries. Of course, a great deal of technological building has been done on the basic discoveries of the scientists, but…
15 Days for Insulting Mohammed Not Enough for Some
A British teacher was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation (which should be a blessing!) for insulting Mohammed. You can read the story here. Yet this outrage is not sufficient to satisfy some Muslim hardliners. There were protests in Khartoum calling for her execution. The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, has said she doesn’t want…
The Continued Saga of Science Education
The state’s director of science curriculum has resigned after being accused of creating the appearance of bias against teaching intelligent design. (Source: Austin-American Statesman A number of other bloggers have commented on this already (Pharyngula here and here, Wesley Elsberry, and The Panda’s Thumb), and you can review the story there. I’m generally a “late…
Happenings Around Here
I’ve been posted much less this week than I have in the past. In fact, I haven’t posted yet this week, which is a miracle of silence on my part! The reason of all this undue restraint is that it has been quite a week. I’m posting now from a new computer. This isn’t really…
Tools Link
On Not Being a Sausage has Bible Software: You get what you pay for, regarding Bible software. Shocking, but true!
Journalism and Objectivity
It’s pretty fashionable to complain about the main stream media, especially on blogs. We bloggers are, to hear us tell it, the answer to MSM bias. Now I do think that blogging has a positive impact by allowing expression of a greater variety of viewpoints. Often bloggers are quality journalists as well. (I don’t count…
Psalm 100
John Hobbins has an excellent post on the structure of Psalm 100.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Well, that pretty much says it. I will be having fun with friends and family, though I’ve already done a bit of casual blogging in the early morning hours. Blessings to all. If you’d like a thanksgiving post, try this one that I wrote for my wife’s devotional list.
The Fear of Being Wrong
If you do anything at all you’re going to be wrong at one time or another. You can be as careful as you want, and still sometime, somewhere, you’ll be wrong. Doubtless I’ll be wrong somewhere in this blog post. It could be a misspelling, a missed word, a badly chose word, or it might…
A Note on Evolution, ID, and Ethical Behavior
No, this isn’t going to be an extended discussion of the ethics of intelligent design advocates, though one of their number does come into it. One of the frequent charges made against evolutionary theory is that it undermines the basis for morals. Various anti-evolutionists have blamed evolutionary theory for everything from the holocaust to bad…
Review of The Language of God
No, not here, and not by me, but my Marc Wagner on the Spectrum Magazine web site. Spectrum Magazine is the journal of the Association of Adventist Forums. The reason I want to call special attention to this review is that it reflects some of my own background. I grew up as an SDA and…
Who Cares about the Present, We have the Future!
A few years ago I was discussing the behavior of a televangelist (who and the particular behavior is unimportant), when she said, “You know, if I believed in God, I’d be afraid to do that.” Now there are certain assumptions in that statement. The God in question must be one who rewards and punishes in…
MBWR #137 + My Highlights
MBWR #135 has been posted. As I’ve been trying to do more frequently, I’m giving a few highlights from each of the carnivals and roundups I read. There is so much good in these, and of course the person who does the complete roundup can’t really rank them all that much, so I think it’s…
PSA: An Unbalanced and Ineffective View of the Atonement
I want to warn those who expect a certain amount of conciliatory tone in my posts on doctrinal issues that I intend to speak more harshly in this post. If that offends you, try reading a different one. I don’t mean to dismiss you, but I feel the need to make some points very strongly…
Christian Carnival #198
has been posted at The Minor Prophet. In this week’s carnival Josiah Concept Ministries both tipped me off to, and responded to, an atheist, VJACK, who is reading the Bible through and commenting. Both posts make good reading. But the final comment in VJACK’s post is pretty interesting: Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad…
Christian Carnival #198
. . . has been posted at The Minor Prophet. A couple of posts are of particular interest in Biblical studies. First, from dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos we have Words of Amos, which is a response to comments on an earlier post on the possible Samaritan background of Stephen’s speech in Acts 7….
Keeping up with the Justification Debate
I am doing some reading before I respond to a couple of posts, but I did want to link to some interesting stuff. Both Mark Olson (Pseudo-polymath) and Anne (Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength) have written posts discussing justification from a perspective other than the judicial/penal substitution approach. Their posts simply confirm to me that…
Bringing Textual Variant Statistics Under Control
Dan Wallace has started a series (actually he did so last week), on textual variants in the New Testament. His first article The Number of Textual Variants: An Evangelical Miscalculation deals with the definition of a textual variant and then with an estimate of the total number of textual variants in the New Testament text….
A Taste of Teaching the Controversy
“Teach the controversy” is one of the well-worn slogans of the creationist movement, and has been well used in the controversy about intelligent design (ID). It’s power is in an appeal to fairness. There’s a dispute? Teach both sides. What could be fairer than that? As with most slogans the problems occur in practically every…
Creation-Evolution Links 11/13/2007
I think I’m at least in the right month this time, which is a good thing because there are some really interesting things to read on the creation-evolution controversy. Some time ago I wrote about a waste of $25 million represented by the creation museum in Kentucky. As it turns out it was a waste…
Genesis 11: Deterioration and Separation
Introduction This chapter contrasts to chapter 10 in many ways. First, the genealogies are in a completely different style. Genesis 10 lists a variety of children for each person. The emphasis is on all the nations coming into being and spreading out. In chapter 11, instead, we have a singular focus–the patriarchal line. The genealogy…
Reading 11/12/07
Update: Edited to correct the date in the header from 10/12/07 to 11/12/07. I truly have not invented a time machine! Here’s some things that caught my attention: Richard Rice Discusses Open Theism20 years ago I read his book The Openness of God when it was first released. I was intrigued by its ideas of…
Why I am Not a Pacifist
Recently there have been a number of articles on pacifism in the Methodist blogosphere, and not a few elsewhere. The most recent set started on Locusts and Honey with his recommendation of this article by Dave Kopel. Another of my blog favorites, Mark Warnock, has challenged the foundation of Kopel’s arguments in Pacifism Got Wrong….