Flotsam and jetsam (1/21)

 

Stark Trek Enterprise pizza cutter

 

 

• Listverse offers a list of the Top 10 Outdated Christian Beliefs.

• James McGrath offers a very nice review of Science, Creation and the Bible: Reconciling Rival Theories of Origins by Richard F. Carlson and Tremper Longman III

• Moody Publishers has launched a new blog focused on “faith, publishing, and literary culture.” (HT)

• Mark Goodacre points out a BBC 4 series on the King James Bible that looks like it could be interesting.

• Matt Flannagan begins a series called “Fallacy Friday” with a post on What Is an Argument?

• According to one recent study, even thinking that you’ve had alcohol can impair memory and judgment. I wonder if that means that thinking you haven’t had alcohol even when you have would lead to improved memory and judgment?

• And, here’s a list of 17 Things You Didn’t Know about Seinfeld.

Would you go on an Answers in Genesis trip to the Grand Canyon?

Every year, Answers in Genesis sponsors a trip to the Grand Canyon and invites people from around the country to attend. I’ve been invited for this next summer and I need to decide if I’m going to go.

The point of the trip, of course, is to present data from the Grand Canyon that ostensibly supports a “young earth” understanding of creation. But, you don’t have to be a young earth creationist to attend. As I understand from people who have gone on previous trips, at least half of the group tends to be either undecided or openly in the “old earth” camp. So, it’s a good chance to interact with people from a variety of perspectives, even though the purpose of the trip is to provide arguments in favor of one particular perspective.

The bonus is that the trips are heavily subsidized. So, at the very least you end up with a pretty cheap river-rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. And, you get to hang out with professors from schools around the country at the same time.

So, what do you think? Would you go on a trip like this? Why or why not? Should I go?  I haven’t really commented much about creation issues on this blog, but I’m not a “young earth” guy. A trip down the Grand Canyon would be pretty amazing. I’m just trying to decide if this is the way I want to do it.

Flotsam and jetsam (6/8)

• Jesus Creed reviews Marilynne Robinson’s new book, An Absence of Mind. If she isn’t already, she really should be on your “must read” list. And there’s a review of John Stott‘s new The Radical Disciple over at ERB.
• NPR did a story today about a group of Italian women, all of whom are or have been priests’ lovers, who wrote a letter to the Pope asking that clerical celibacy be reconsidered.
• After an earlier post in which he pointed out the similarities between the Genesis creation account and other creation myths like Gilgamesh and Atrahasis, Peter Enns now looks at the theological distinctives of the Genesis account.
• Ben Myers posted his thoughts and resources from a talk that he recently gave on “God and evil.” The resources are interestingly diverse and he concludes: “A Christian response to evil is not theodicy, but struggle – the struggle of taking God’s side against the world’s disorder, and of refusing to treat evil as an acceptable part of a larger harmonious vision.”
• James McGrath offers a roundup of posts related to the recent discussion of diversity and unity in the early church.
• Justin Taylor notes three new introductions to the Reformation.
• And, they think they’ve discovered a gladiator graveyard in northern England.

Flotsam and jetsam (6/3)

• Here’s another review of Wright’s After Virtue, this time from Michael Horton.
• I commented the other day on Piper’s affirmation of a Sailhammerian view of creation. In case your not sure what exactly that means, here’s a good summary of Sailhammer’s position.
• Time magazine has an interesting article on Evangelicals and social action and another one on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church that is particularly helpful for understanding the difficulties involved in issuing any kind of meaningful papal apology.
• EvangelicalOutpoust offers some great comments on Hellboy as a story of redemption.
• I had intended to ignore this completely, but I finally caved and decided to post a link to it in case you’re interested and haven’t seen this yet. So, Ted Haggard is doing stuff. That’s about all I’m going to say.
• And, apparently George W. Bush has a Facebook page now. I’m sure he’d appreciate it if you’d drop him a note.

On Bruce Waltke’s resignation, evolution, and evangelicalism

CT just published a good piece on Bruce Waltke’s resignation from RTS over comments that he made in a video interview over at BioLogos. The article summarizes RTS’s concerns:

According to RTS interim president Michael Milton, Waltke’s resignation was accepted because of his “mainline evolutionary” views and “uncharitable and surely regrettable characterizations” of those who disagree with his biblical interpretation.

Apparently Waltke has not expressed any criticism of RTS for their decision, but did say that he sees the whole situation as “providential” in that it brought the issue to the forefront and gave him the opportunity to teach at Knox.

The article goes on to highlight several other evangelical scholars who have landed themselves in touchy situations over this issue. And, of course, it raises all over again the question of where the line is between academic freedom and confessional conviction. That’s never an easy line to draw. But when the issue is as sensitive as this one, particularly among your constituency, it gets even harder.