William J. Webb. Corporal Punishment in the Bible: A Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic for Troubling Texts. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011. In the introduction to Corporal Punishment in the Bible William Webb introduces us to a former student of his, an Ethiopian gentleman named Fanosie. Webb recalls how he emailed Fanosie several chapters from the manuscript of […]
Archives for 2012
Would it be wrong to resurrect the Neanderthals?
Over the holidays many people indulge in drink or sweets. Like a true nerd, I indulge in reading all the books I couldn’t get to during the semester. Among those books was anthropologist Chris Stringer’s Lone Survivors (Henry Holt, 2012). The book presents Stringer’s Recent Out of Africa (ROA) theory according to which homo sapiens […]
Will love win in Newtown? Reflections on an unspeakable tragedy
It has been said that we’re all separated by a maximum of six degrees of introduction from every other person on this globe. In the case of the Newtown tragedy, I’m separated by but two steps. My mother knows Rob Charach, the principal of Linden Christian School in Winnipeg, MB. And Linden is the school that was […]
Everything you ever wanted to know about divine action (except how it really works)
Yesterday I was asked about some good material to read on the topic of divine action and science. Right away I thought of Nicholas Saunders’ book Divine Action and Modern Science (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Saunders did a really interesting overview of the topic of divine action and the problems with current theories of it […]
Does a candle really illumine the darkness?
In the Christmas eve service our pastor poignantly declared “The faintest light can illumine the deepest darkness” as he lit a candle. He then started lighting the candles of the congregants (for we had all been granted our own slender white candle upon entry to the sanctuary). Soon the sanctuary was brightened (if not quite […]
God and non-God objects. Like, what’s the problem? A response to Justin Schieber
The other day I listened to Justin Schieber’s lecture “The Problem of Non-God Objects.” You can listen to it here. In his presentation Schieber argues that a perfect God could not create a universe. Since the universe exists, it follows that God doesn’t. The Argument Briefly Summarized What is the basis for this argument? It […]
A Journey in Mindandcosmosia: God as explanatory posit
As I continue my journey reading Thomas Nagel’s book Mind & Cosmos I will pause here and there to make various observations. If it makes things more interesting, think of the book as a mystical land called Mindandcosmosia which we have come to by passing through a magical wardrobe. After squeezing between musty fur coats […]
On the Bad Stuff in the Good Book: A Review of Eric Seibert’s The Violence of Scripture
Eric A. Seibert. The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament’s Troubling Legacy. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012. There is a deep cognitive dissonance which must be faced by any thinking Christian and it involves the fact that the Bible contains seemingly contradictory images of God in terms of transcendent love and extreme violence. We begin with […]
Thomas Nagel, Iconoclast and Antitheist, on Intelligent Design
Thomas Nagel is one of the most respected philosophers in the world. Like many great philosophers, he has demonstrated throughout his career a penchant for independent thought. While lesser minds have been swayed by various intellectual fashions and orthodoxies, Nagel has cut his own path. This is evident in Nagel’s 1974 paper “What is it […]
A Debate on the Nativity for Christmas
Today the “Reasonable Doubts” podcast released a one hour forty minute debate between Jonathan Pearce and myself on the historical reliability of the nativity narratives of Matthew and Luke. The debate consists of twenty minute opening statements, fifteen minute rebuttals, seven minute rebuttals, five minute rebuttals, and two minute closing statements. Whew! I get tired […]
How not to do apologetics: Lessons from Francis Church and Virginia (Part 1)
If you had a big question in the late nineteenth century, and you lived in the vicinity of New York, it made sense to send your question to The New York Sun newspaper. After all, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” As a result, when Virginia O’Hanlon began having big questions about […]
Unbiblical Evangelicalism: Lessons from Rick Warren’s “Daniel Diet”
The other day while watching an episode of Brian Williams’ program “Rock Center” I learned that Pastor Rick Warren is on a new crusade to lose weight, and help his Saddleback Church do the same. He’s lost fifty pounds so far and his church collective has dropped more than two hundred thousand pounds. Not only […]
Are we determined by our circumstance?
The other day I was on the phone with my brother when we got into a “Say, I wonder what ever happened to…?” conversation. The name that popped up was Darren S., a neighborhood kid from my youth of thirty years ago with whom we’d spent countless hours playing manhunt in the orchards, having sleepovers, and […]
The Wonderful Moments of 9/11
Every generation has “Where were you when this happened?” events. I still remember where I was when I heard about the Challenger disaster and the death of Princess Diana. In the latter case I had returned to the house with my girlfriend when my mother came to the top of the stairs and told us […]
