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Dr TK Dunn on the Importance of the Old Testament
This is an extract from a longer interview, which I will also embed. I think Dr. Dunn has some valuable comments on the relationship of scripture and what it means for our study. And here’s the full interview from which that was extracted.
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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Christian Carnival #202 and My Highlights
… has been posted at Lo-Fi Tribe. As usual, I want to highlight some posts from the carnival. Since I’m an egalitarian, I read this post from Pseudo-Polymath with interest. The discussion that follows is also substantial and interesting. I hope I can find time to respond in a post. I hate making comments that…
Christian Carnival #302 Posted
. . . at Lo-Fi Tribe.
Continued Database Problems
I’m continuing to have considerable database problems. I’m keeping a close eye on the blog and I can bring it back up easily, but it’s not looking very stable. It’s possible I may change to a different provider for my server. In the meantime, I ask for patience! Update: I’m testing a change in the…
Inside Higher Ed on Dr. Richard Colling
Inside Higher Ed has an article, Academic Freedom and Evolution which discusses the AAUP response, amongst others, to the situation at Olivet Nazarene University where Dr. Colling is no longer assigned to teach a general biology course he had taught for years, and his book Random Designer cannot be used as reading in any class….
Of Trees, Forests, and Bible Study
I was impressed recently while reading several different blog entries about the importance of the way(s) in which we look at Bible passages. Now I certainly emphasize looking at the forest–at the broad sweep of Biblical themes. One way of looking at themes is in terms of trajectories–which way is the Bible story going. For…
Random Design and New Information in the Genome
Last night I wrote a response to chapters 9-11 of Dr. Richard Colling’s book Random Designer, and I really thought my post was inadequate. Those chapters discuss the very core of evolutionary theory–variation (specifically mutation) and natural selection, including the balance between preserving information through accurate copying, but also allow new information through copying errors….
Random Designer IV
This is a continuation of my series blogging through the book Random Designer by Dr. Richard Colling. The previous entry is Random Designer III. In chapters 9-11, Dr. Colling continues to present the basics of evolution and the history of life on earth in language that is comprehensible to the layman. I’m very glad to…
Intelligent Design and Faith
An interesting discussion broke out in the comments to this post on The Panda’s Thumb, regarding the nature of faith and how intelligent design relates to faith. On the one hand we have some who hold that anything that provides evidence for God works contrary to faith, i.e. the purest faith is based on no…
PSA: Thoughts on Centering
David Heddle commented on my earlier post, PSA: An Unbalanced and Ineffective View of the Atonement, in his post Penal Substitutionary Atonement: its not about Justice. I haven’t had time to respond until now, and I will only respond to a few points. One of the things I have noticed about debates on the atonement…
Moderate Christian Blogroll Change
The RSS feed for the Moderate Christian blogroll, useful for putting links in your sidebar, will be changing. Since many of the blogroll members don’t read the blogroll admin blog, I’m putting the announcement here as well. The old feed will be going away, and the new feed is already active. If you are using…
Random Designer III
Continuing to work through this book, chapter 6, “Magnificent Molecular Micro-Machines” presents a great deal of the complexity of the cell, and its form and structure. I’m going to start this time with a quote: At first glance, it would seem impossible to generate such increidble diversity from such a small pool of amino acid…
Christian Carnival #201 Posted
. . . at Thinking Christian.
Links for 12/7/07
Here a just a few things I think my readers might find interesting, but that I won’t get much time to comment on: Human events has an article on intelligent design by a conservative who doesn’t think much of it. In fact, he thinks the main stream media cover it because it’s embarrassing to conservatives….
Christian Carnival #201 Posted
. . . at Thinking Christian.
Heresy Hunting with Closed Ears
Since I write frequently on minimizing the number of essential doctrines, and maximizing lines of communication, I just had to call attention to this blog, Herescope. It’s “About” tells the story: This non-interactive blog contains information revealing heresies and false teachings affecting the Church today. . . . [emphasis mine] Need I say more?
Creation-Evolution Posts and Reading Recommendations
I’ve been posting a good deal about evolution since the Florida science standards have been rewritten and it’s time for comments. Early next year we’ll be dealing with a vote. Generally people think the new standards are good, but as is not uncommon, a different standard is applied to evolution than to other scientific theories….
Barbara Forrest makes Statement on Firing of Chris Comer
I blogged before about the firing of Chris Comer. PZ Myers now has a post that includes the full statement by Barbara Forrest about this. Comer was apparently fired for forwarding a memo announcing Barbara Forrest’s talk in Austin. It’s a good statement.
Random Designer II
I’m continuing to blog through this interesting book by Dr. Richard Colling, and I’m enjoying it a great deal. I want to note that this isn’t a review; rather, it’s simply journaling the experience of reading the book. I’m doing this because this book appears to me to be a powerful experience in itself. It’s…
My (Alleged) Hatred of Fundamentalists
Well, as I usually do when I try to be brief (a very rare event!), I stepped in it again and managed to set off some warning bells for some people when I posted about the teacher who was arrested in the Sudan for naming a teddy bear “Mohammed.” Actually, nobody accused me of hatred,…
Heresy in the Bible?
I’ve noted a tendency amongst both friends and enemies (hopefully this is hyperbole!) of mine to declare people heretics for some very brief statements, especially in matters of soteriology. People are particularly quick to pick up on any suggestion of legalism or Pelagianism. But I notice that the Bible writers are not terribly careful to…
Florida Science Standards go from F to High B
. . . and I think they’re headed for an A. The writing committee is to be commended for their hard work. The National Center for Science Education and Florida Citizens for Science have issued a press release giving an evaluation of the new standards by one of the experts who participated in giving the…
Random Designer I
A while back I blogged a bit about Richard Colling, an evangelical Christian, microbiologist and a supporter of the theory of evolution. The major item of controversy at the time was his book, Random Designer, which seeks to combine his Christian faith with his acceptance of evolution. I’m going to blog my way through his…
The Gonzalez Tenure Issue
The Gonzalez tenure issue has bothered me considerably, and not for the reasons that the Discovery Institute would like. There seems to be a bias that suggests that academic freedom must mean that there are no constraints whatsoever on what a professor may teach or do, before or after hiring and before or after tenure….
Rose Colored Glasses?
I’m working on a long post on 2 Corinthians 5, but in the meantime, try answering some of these questions.