Skip to content

Humor

a national confession

…unique, impenetrable, mysticalicious, and imponderable… Tree-an-wan

Pawl’s Promise

“I will host a bonfire at which I and any of you who feel inclined can come and burn our copies of this book.”

I'll sue ya - Wierd Al

Want to sue yourself? Theology can help!

This unfortunate woman crashed her vehicle, injuring herself and fatally injuring her husband. But what’s interesting is what’s happening now: she’s going to sue herself, to get money from her own insurance company. A Utah woman will be the plaintiff and the defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit that has legal experts scratching their heads. … a Utah court has ruled Bagley, the representative of her… Read More »Want to sue yourself? Theology can help!

saggy pants

what “pants” teaches us about “elohim” (“God”)

A RANTING guy on Facebook recently wrote to me, in part: The Hebrew word ELOHIM is PLURAL which is the real nature of DIVINITY. …The creator of the Heavens and the Earth in Genesis 1:1 is ELOHIM, a community of creativity! I replied that the word elohim is plural in structure, just like the English word “pants.”But elohim is often singular in meaning, just like “pants.” “These… Read More »what “pants” teaches us about “elohim” (“God”)

a new proof of God’s existence, with an assist from Dr. Bart Ehrman?

In the last week of my recent Introduction to Philosophy class, two teams of students debated the existence of God in front of the class. After the debate the rest of the students wrote a short response to the debate. While the pro-God side had offered versions of the design and ontological arguments, one student opined in his written response that they had overlooked the obvious.… Read More »a new proof of God’s existence, with an assist from Dr. Bart Ehrman?

The Lost Gospel – Not Lost, and Not a Gospel!

Dr. Bob Cargill of the University of Iowa reviews The Lost Gospel by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson. In his view, it’s a stink-bomb of a Christmas present. In part (emphases added) Just don’t bother. Were it a Dan Brown-esque novel, positing a speculative interpretation about the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene utilizing a fanciful allegorical interpretation of a document written six centuries after Jesus… Read More »The Lost Gospel – Not Lost, and Not a Gospel!

podcast 32 – review of the movie Son of God (2014)

0.75x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 0:0000:25:06 podcast 32 – review of the movie Son of God (2014) Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsPlayer EmbedShare Leave a ReviewListen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe on AndroidSubscribe via RSSSpotify Last night I finally saw the 2014 movie Son of God. I’m not as down on the movie as this guy! Other reviewers point out some inaccuracies of detail. Others say it’s just… Read More »podcast 32 – review of the movie Son of God (2014)

a new Trinity Meme

I love memes. You don’t often see one that’s about the Trinity! (H/T Tim Pawl on Facebook.) One could view this as a complaint, a mere lament at our cognitive ineptitude. Or, possibly, one could view it as superficially a joke, but actually an assertion of negative mysterianism. In practice, I think that stance is going to always include a policy of repeating the required words,… Read More »a new Trinity Meme

trying to prepare a sermon on the Trinity

H/T Oliver Crisp on Facebook. From the fun theologygrams. Seems there is no rest for the weary. Only one way out: a big, comfortable, ground-hugging, smokescreen of mystery. Make it really big, wait till it spreads, and then make your getaway, before it dissipates. Quickly!  

Trinity vs. Oneness vs. unitarianism Youtube shootout

As we all know, the ideal medium for theological debate is a music video posted on youtube. In the past, we’ve seen the mighty Winterband strking a blow for Oneness Pentecostalism. Trinitarians rapped back with some impressive rhymes. Now, unitarians enter the fray. If I had to pick a theology based solely on the musical quality of these entries (which of course is a great… Read More »Trinity vs. Oneness vs. unitarianism Youtube shootout

St. Patrick’s bad analogies

Quite funny! This fellow has real comedic talent. It is remarkable, when you step back to consider it, that this video is by a trinitarian. It’s main point is: no one really knows what these traditional words mean (those of the “Athanasian” Creed); we just say them. Trying to understand those words is futile. A striking amount of trust, for a Protestant, in an anonymous… Read More »St. Patrick’s bad analogies

Bill Maher on God and Jesus

I consider comedian Bill Maher to be a fairly funny guy. I don’t care for his politics. But I watched his movie Religulous, and I thought it had some funny and interesting moments. He’s not as smart as he thinks he is. He’s typical of kids who were raised Catholic, who didn’t pay too much attention, and who later sloughed off the whole thing as… Read More »Bill Maher on God and Jesus

Linkage: Sokal Hoax 2.0

id-rather-like-you-to-know-youve-been-trolled.jpgEvery philosophy student and every theology student should know about the original Sokal hoax. Here’s the best reflection on its important lessons. (Dr. Boghossian later expanded the discussion in this book.)

Now a philosopher has pulled a similar hoax; this time it’s a naturalistic atheist vs. the Association for Reformational Philosophy. The story is at Jerry Coyne’s blog, Why Evolution is True. (Never mind that this particular post provides no such reason. 🙂 ) Coyne notes,

This shows once again the appeal of religious gibberish to the educated believer

True – for some. But Read More »Linkage: Sokal Hoax 2.0

Arguing against no one

Princeton philosopher Thomas Kelly in a paper on the epistemology of disagreement (i.e. what the reasonable response when we find the people just as smart and informed etc. as us disagree on some important matter):

In principle, we ought to be able to give due weight to the available reasons that support a given view, even in the absence of actual defenders of the view who take those reasons as compelling. But in practice, the case for a view is apt to get short shrift in the absence of any actual defenders. The existence of actual defenders can serve to overcome our blindspots by forcefully reminding us just how formidable the case is for the thesis that they defend… But the case for a given view itself is no stronger in virtue of the fact that that view has actual defenders…

Thomas Kelly, ” The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement,” p. 31 (in pre-print).

At first this reminded me of a proverb I’ve often thought of when reading some catholic theologian who has evidently never put the slightest effort into understanding the overall case for unitarianism:

“The first to speak in court sounds right–until the cross-examination begins.”  Proverbs 18:17 (NLT)

But this is actually a different point than Kelly’s. A better courtroom analogy for Kelly’s point is:Read More »Arguing against no one

Craig on Flying Spaghetti Monster Mockery

The “Flying Spaghetti Monster” was born as an inept parody of intelligent design arguments. About this, philosopher William Lane Craig is right on the money. The FSM is more than this, though. It is thought by many village-atheist-type young males (roughly 12-29) to be an oh-so-clever-and-naughty parody of monotheism in general, apart from any design-creation controversies. The thing is, the FSM is not clever – only naughty… Read More »Craig on Flying Spaghetti Monster Mockery

The Trinity Explained (with Reason)

The word is “Therefore…” When you are making a deductive argument, this means that what you are about to say logically follows from (is implied by) what you have just said. That is, if the former part were to be true, what you’re about to say must also be true. A non sequitur (Latin for: “it doesn’t follow”) is an invalid argument, one in which the premises don’t imply… Read More »The Trinity Explained (with Reason)