See Graham’s post here: If Intelligent Design Is “Pseudoscience,” Then Neo-Darwinism Might Be Too, and my comment on it. “Pseudoscience” has too much negative baggage for it to be a proper name for all the speculative scientistry out there that masquerades as plain vanilla science. Maybe we can blame the western world’s creepazoid falsifiability fetish, … Bulleted Thoughts: Science, Creation, Corporate Prayer
The Chosen The story of the followers and supporting characters surrounding a certain itinerant apocalyptic Jewish preacher in 1st century Roman-occupied Near East get a closer examination. Not sci-fi nor fantasy, but it involves real life supernatural lore so I think this qualifies. There’s going to be a lot of strong feelings either way about … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 51
From The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol 1: Once, as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory … Jonathan Edwards on Encountering God
One of the great things about Biblical scholars who are Christian—for sure, a good number of Biblical scholars are not Christian—is that, if they do it right, you’ll get raw commentary with a much narrower range of variation, free from church doctrine or tradition. That might sound anti-Christian, though it’s anything but. There’s a lot … Friday Night Video: Michael Heiser on Aliens and Demons
The modern western mind, soaked in democracy and equality, bristles at God keeping a man within His good graces despite his terminally bad performance. I suppose the gross unfairness appeals to me personally because my personal failures are various and sundry, and I can be acutely aware of them at times. I’ve heard pastors calling … Heiser on Believing Loyalty
Short answer: no one knows, and many scientists qua scientists probably know the least of all. If the age is being calculated using most Big Bang theories, it’s probably wrong. Assuming Alfvén was being truthful of what Lemaître’s said (the 3:00 mark), establishing a timeline of creation using Aquinas would be starting down the wrong … Video: How Big Is The Universe?
From the Naked Bible podcast, episode 8 (Spotify, YouTube): So how does this help us understand the passage? Briefly, baptism is not what produces salvation. It saves, in that it first involves or reflects a heart decision, a pledge of loyalty to the risen Savior. In effect, baptism in New Testament theology is a loyalty … Heiser on Baptism
I made a comment on Mike Duran’s latest post: “What Does the Bible Say about Haunted Houses?“. Posting it here for safekeeping. Lots of good points here, Mike. The effects of Babel echo to the present day. God doesn’t direct the nations as they are now…that’s more under the control of the Elohim council, which … Haunted Houses and Babel
I was asked by a friend what I thought of the video on this page: Heavenly Fire – The John 10:10 Project. On the whole, I like what it says, despite the American evangelical bent of what’s expressed there. The explanation of the sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields and how they interact is accurate, as … Made for Each Other
Spotify’s cancelation confirmation screen has some creative content design: “Found art”: Life is waiting:
After Earth After an injured Ranger Corps officer and his son survive a crash landing on a depopulated Earth, they must contend with the hostile environment and feral Ursa creatures to survive. There was something incomplete going on here, like M. Night Shyamalan just gave up halfway through directing the thing. I want to invoke … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 43
Note: This will probably be the last review post I’ll publish for a while. In the early days when I was recovering from shoulder surgery, I tried to read as much as I could but there’s a limit to that when you’re in pain and/or on painkillers. It was much easier to watch TV to … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 42
In all my decades of church going, I’ve never heard a pastor or priest preach on this parable. There are reasons for this: it doesn’t provide the Hallmark feels that parables like the Prodigal Son do; pastors can be lazy, and organizing a sermon with this material requires some work to brush away some assumptions; … The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
Anything based on Enlightenment principles, including “human rights,” isn’t courting disaster, it’s slapping the start button on a judgement time bomb. If we want to get to the fundamentals of it, human rights are products of men’s minds, implicit agreements to use force a certain way. The bigger the parties involved, the more complex and … Catacomb Resident: The American Lie
Here’s where a lot of people might get tripped up, on both sides of the religion debate. The idea that a religious concept is good for people, but not so much for God, requires a little parsing. The rituals exist for men, not for God. God isn’t pleased with ritual itself, but rather, if anything, … Catacomb Resident: The Necessity of Ritual
Futile Philosophy 4 (mirrored on archive.org): Futile Philosophy 4 23 October 2021 If you rely on what your senses and reason tell you, you’ll never understand reality. From our human capabilities, we surmise that nature is totally unconcerned about us, if not outright hostile at times. This is false. Jesus boldly spoke to supposedly inanimate … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 4
The subject of the pre-modern view of the supernatural coincides nicely with the most recent post over at History for Atheists, Jesus Mythicism 8: Jesus, History and Miracles. Humean skepticism and falsifiability is so ingrained in how we think that it’s near impossible for even reasonably intelligent people to even conceive that others in the … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 3
What Catacomb Resident is explaining here is similar to Alvin Plantinga’s sensus divinatus, the faculty that senses and processes ideas about metaphysical things as a form of a priori knowledge, just as philosophically legitimate as the physical senses or logic. Our sensus divinatus is damaged by default because of the Fall, since we are tied … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 2
Futile Philosophy 1 (mirrored on archive.org) Futile Philosophy 1 20 October 2021 This may be a little too cerebral for some readers. It’s normally pointless to discuss philosophical basics. Most people don’t understand the discussion, and those who do often don’t actually walk by it, and cannot seem to translate it very well for those … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 1
There was a meme image, screenshot from a Twitter post, I saw a while back. It was a woman mentioning the fact that Jesus never told women to cover up but told men to pluck out their eyeballs to avoid sexual temptation. The implication is that the onus is all on men, though the idea … Catacomb Resident: Indecent Exposure
America Defiled (mirrored on archive.org) One thing to note here is that the covenant of Noah and its seven laws were made with all humanity, meaning. A nation (people) following the Noahic laws, even if the nation isn’t especially Christian, could expect some reasonable blessings, because Noah addresses core human behavior and consequences. In other … Catacomb Resident: America Defiled
I came across this anonymous writer, Catacomb Resident. Much of what he (she?) has posted about aligns closely with my religious beliefs, which are at the same time common and familiar, but rare, and rarely expressed in the same way CR does it. He encourages theft of anything he posts, so I’ll be doing a … Catacomb Resident: Know Him
I never quite liked intelligent design theory completely. It has interesting points but it rationalized things in a vacuum, as we have no other universe to compare statistical notes, or, if we’re feeling actually scientific: no other universe with which we can experiment, observe, conclude, duplicate the results. The theory also implies that God is … In-Meh-lligent Design
Prescience, from Eugenics and Other Evils. Granted, his time, there was no national health experts the way we have them now. They were more local, within striking distance. The scope was smaller but the observations remain the same. It was best presented perhaps by the distinguished doctor who wrote the article on these matters in … G.K. Chesterton on Health Experts
1. Removing delineations between the Old and New Testaments. A good reason for the removal of the Old and New Testaments as categories or delineations has two parts. The first is superficial: God’s revelation and dealings with men are neither old nor new, but looking at the writings from a high level, those dealings are … Two Ways Christianity Could Be Better
A part of one of Ed’s recent blog posts, and then one of his comments: Don’t be a sucker for the philosophical arguments to support any part of this conflict. Obey what your convictions demand within the context; don’t listen to any other voice. Christ is a Person, not a body of ideas. He lives … God and Ontology
The final boss(es) from my favorite game. I had trouble finding a decent-sized version of both the three-tier statue and Kefka, so I cobbled this together from three different images: the statues, the sun and sky background, and the crazed Kefka himself. The images are from the iOS version of the game, so the pixels … Image: Final Fantasy VI Statue of the Gods and Kefka
If you’re a working stiff like me, you will have seen a printout of the moral alignment chart tacked up in the break room somewhere, assuming your co-workers have a base level of humor. The printouts feature characters from a fictional universe (I refuse to use the word “fandom”) and the characters’ perceived alignment. If … What Is God’s Moral Alignment?
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Some reviews didn’t like this installment because of aliens. Why aliens are so wildly out of the picture, while magic chalices, magic Hindu stones, and magic golden God boxes are just fine, isn’t really explained. Either way, I was glad to finally have some Communists get … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 5
A monstrous cumulonimbus storm cloud I took near my bus stop. I had to stop into the store for a bio break before heading home. If I had downed so much water on the ride home, I may have not seen this. The Lord provides.
There’s been more than one philosopher who have posed the hiddenness of God as an argument against His existence. If you’re a strict materialist, it makes sense that you would expect sense data, at the very least, of God to begin a framework of proof for God’s existence. Some skeptics argue that an ideal God … Someone Steal This Book Idea: The Obvious God
Men, arrayed on rays, vertex to vertex Reach across the plane with probisci Sleek and curious but blade-grass frail A lateral-diagonal intermingling God, as capstone, pours it downward Perpendicularity, liquid, and unpredicatable Few could apprehend from whence to where Most retract their probing lines, prophesying danger Only a few stay their hand to catch the … Story: Platonic Solid
“Always the same, and now all this. No more stones. No more spears. No more slings. No more swords. No more weapons! No more systems! No more superpowers. You can fire your arrows from the Tower of Babel, but you can never strike God!”
Jill asked me in a comment to describe my ideal state. I obliged: You know, I don’t think anyone has asked me that directly. I don’t know what the ideal state is, but it probably isn’t a state. I can’t really decide for other people under what rulership they should be living–deciding for other people … The Ideal State
Happy Easter! Please enjoy my favorite Easter song. If it’s not your first choice in music (understandable), at least read the lyrics, posted below the video. Crucifixion upon the cross Dying for sins, fulfilling prophecy Beaten for His faith Praying for enemies upon sacrifice Forsaken in the eyes of God Sins of man, to Him … Happy Easter, 2016
There’s a pilot ordered for a Nancy Drew series on CBS: Described as a contemporary take on the character from the iconic Nancy Drew book series, the CBS project will center around a diverse, 30-something title character. A more mature version than the classic story, Nancy is now detective for the NYPD where she investigates … At What Point Does Nancy Drew Become Not Nancy Drew?
If you didn’t hear, scientists discovered some unusual gravitational waves emanating from two black holes. It’s a big deal since it strongly bolsters Einstein’s space-time theories. Mike Duran quoted astrophysicist Hugh Ross on Facebook: “The existence of gravity waves is an important prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Einstein’s theory of general relativity is … God’s Nose Wiggles
Well, to provide a tl;dr answer to the question posed in the blog title, He might shoot a lot of B.C. Egyptians, particularly first born sons. He’d also maybe shoot Canaanites—all of them. Lots of the contextual “What would Jesus do in x situation? Let’s find out,” hypotheticals end up being an ad absurdum argument, … Who Would Jesus Shoot? AKA, Stop Putting Jesus in a Clown Suit
Perhaps you’ve read this article regarding the recent San Bernardino shooting, or at least seen an image of the cover with the bold quote. America—as the pinnacle of Western civ, with all its attendant belief systems—as a nation, has nothing to do with God, so I don’t see a reason why God should bother helping … Why Should God Fix Anything?
The Real Reason We Need to Stop Trying to Protect Everyone’s Feelings Sic et Non, Souls and Pre-existence – I’m in the middle of reading Plato’s Phaedo, and the soul’s pre-existence was forefront. Instead of bumbling through a post about it, JT’s writing is much better. A classic formula for pi has been discovered hidden … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 9
In the last part of John 1, Jesus recruits Philip, who then goes to tell Nathanael about Him. Nathanael is skeptical but does an about-face when he asks Jesus how He knew him. It’s implied that there is some divine foreknowledge on Jesus’ part when He said “I saw you” under the fig tree; presumably, … Quick Bible Study: John’s Nathanael Narrative
See here and here for reference. 1. Inference (2): “If (i) morally good acts are willed by God because they are morally good, then they are morally good independent of God’s will.” – Possibly true, but irrelevant, since there’s other things besides God’s will that morality could rest upon: i.e., God’s power or omniscience. 2. … The Euthyphro Dumb-lemma
Another drive-by post. There’s too many great bits of information on here to call one out, so I would just read the entire piece. In the context of this particular quote, I don’t find the debate about evolution vs. creation very relevant. Most of the debate originates between pushy scientists who really want to disprove … Natural vs Supernatural Concepts in Ancient Hebrew
This is a redo of my previous post, “The ‘Accumulative Past’ Argument Against God’s Existence”. After some discussion on Facebook I decided to change it up. I thought #1 was a weak premise, even for a skeptic, seeing as time as we know it is an abstraction by itself, and if it’s applied to a … The “Accumulative Existence” Argument Against God’s Existence
Most Christians are too scaredy-cat—skeptics, too dull-witted—to really step into the thinking process of someone different. I, on the other hand, can spend inordinate effort doing so. This argument is very weak because it’s just a framework. A more realer philosopher-guy needs to put some meat on the steps. Additionally, this can only work for … The “Accumulative Past” Argument Against God’s Existence
Intense online debates tend to go only one way. Some hapless dude makes a claim that is more or less self-evidently true, and a high-minded scientismist-debutante asks for “EVIDENCE??”. That’s really not the only way but many debates can follow this simple framework. The implication with this triple-syllabled rejoinder is that a failure to produce … Stop Asking For Evidence
Old page (a decade old!), but it does a good job of laying out some bare historical facts and estimates on the background of the “creeping death” plague from Exodus: As in many of the skeptical questions I get, the conclusion they end up with is often correct in some basic sense (i.e., ‘we should … Why God Killed All Those Egyptian Babies
I can enjoy books like The Lotus and the Cross or the Coffee with Jesus comics from Radio Free Babylon, but presuming to speak for Son of the Big Guy (SotBG) seems to be an awfully heavy load to carry. Even if we disclaim it as paraphrasing or going with the flow of the “spirit” … What Would Jesus Dribble Into His Beard?
In my last post, I may have made it sound like I find blogs annoying*, but I really don’t. I subscribe to many of them and I know there are some mutual subscriptions. The crux of it was that, even though I’m not a heavy publisher, I was getting burnt out on my own blogging. … An Addendum to My Last Post About Blogging
I had the thought to reboot Jesus’ message of the Good Samaritan into more modern terms after last Sunday’s sermon. Doubtlessly this has been done before, but the point of this was to use people I would expect to be good or bad neighbors in a role reversal, which I think is part of the … The Good Godless Humanist
If you haven’t read any of my previous posts about this, a friend of mine last year mentioned that I should do a book review of the Bible on here. Even though he was meant it as a joke I thought it was a pretty good idea, if not a little daunting. The only problem … Book Review: The Bible, Part 1
The other day in the car the family was listening to a song from Anberlin, called “Reclusion”. One of the lines in the chorus goes like this: Sins like skeletons are so very hard to hide. Nice line, but it had me thinking that this could be taken two different ways, which aren’t radically different … English Be Hard: Skeletal Punctuation