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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 Will Be Here
There will be a Christian Carnival the day after Christmas, and it will be right here. Be sure to submit your posts. You can find the links to the carnival and the form at the bottom of the right sidebar.
The OTHER War on Christmas
A couple of days ago my wife and I were discussing just how little we cared precisely how someone greeted us during the holidays. As usual, Jody made it clear that she would greet people however she wanted, which normally means “Merry Christmas” while at the same time mentioning appropriate occasions for the use of…
Florida Science Standards Debate Heats Up
I can’t seem to keep up with everything that’s happening in the debate about science standards here in Florida, but Brandon Haught, our Florida Citizens for Science communication director (I’m a board member) is doing an excellent job on the FCfS Blog. In particular, I’d like to call attention to two blog posts there: Those…
Misunderstanding Translations
A friend drew my attention to this article on the ESV today, and I’m deeply disappointed in what I found there. I’m going to comment on some key difficulties with that article. But the author also links to this article by John Piper, which doesn’t so much surprise me, as put in context some other…
Christian Carnival #203 Posted
. . . at Bounded Irrationality. Check it out.
Biblical Inerrancy and Evolution
It’s very easy to equate the creation-evolution debate amongst Christians with the inerrancy debate. Many assume that those who accept the theory of evolution will automatically reject inerrancy. But this is not the case. This confusion results from another incorrect equation–Biblical inerrancy with Biblical literalism. Biblical literalism is itself a difficult concept to get ahold…
Random Designer VI
Chapter 16 of Random Designer turns a bit of a corner, though it is a logical progression. I get the impression that some of the non-Christian readers will turn aside at this point, as Dr. Colling progresses into the theological. The chapter titles are “Created for Connection,” “Cosmic Loneliness,” “Where is God, Really?,” and “Embedded…
Wright and Piper on 2 Corinthians 5:21
A fair number of pixels have been lit up over the issue of how 2 Corinthians 5:21 is to be interpreted, and specifically how this relates to our understanding of justification. N. T. Wright has an interesting article on how “the righteousness of God” should be understood in this passage. This article was dismissed by…
Random Designer V
With my previous post I completed reading the first section of Random Designer. Up to this point, while we have been touching on faith, the primary purpose of the material was to outline what evolution is, and the areas and strength of evidence for it. Obviously, in any reasonable sized book, Dr. Colling could not…
You Might be a Fundamentalist If . . .
John at Shuck and Jive has some ideas on how to identify a fundamentalist, especially if that’s YOU. I’m thinking his standards are a little tougher than mine, but his are a bit closer to a “dictionary” definition, always provided you locate just the right dictionary. I’ve been enjoying Rev. John’s blog lately, though he’s…
What Do These Three Blogs have in Common?
Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog from the Reasons to Believe ministry Herescope, dedicated to hunting heretics, presumably such as me! Adrian’s Blog, to which I have responded many times. Can’t find the similarity? Here it is: All three of them prefer to operate without any user response. Now I find that a bit more…
Differences of Opinion, Lies, and Seeing the Other Side
I got started this morning on this topic by reading this post at Quintessence of Dust. Dr. Matheson is looking for a good model to use in referring to creationists and their arguments. The temptation is to regard all false statements as lies. But at the same time we have to ask why people who…
Good Teaching or Mockery?
This case should turn out to be interesting. As it is, it cries out for context. (See also this on MSNBC). A Christian high school student is complaining that his AP history teacher is mocking his faith. His mother became concerned when the teacher said that American was not founded on Christian values. Since I’d…
Two Paradigms for Church
Many of us have discussed the problem, as we see it, of young people leaving the church when they become adults, and sometimes–too rarely–returning at a later time. Sometimes people have complacently told me, “Oh, they’ll be back when they have children of their own, but it doesn’t always work that way. In this video…
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: itÂ’s 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…