James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 5, 2009, 9:13 pm
I just finished reading Dan Simmons' novel Hyperion and my only complaint is that I did not know sooner that the book was going to end with a cliffhanger, necessitating the reading of the sequel, ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 4, 2009, 10:53 pm
I know it has already been cancelled, but tonight's two-part episode of Dollhouse was the best so far. It had surprising twists and turns, revelations that led to new questions, as well as humor. ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 4, 2009, 12:34 pm
This will surely be relevant to some readers: In its efforts to promote education, Gorgias Press offers annually the Gorgias Book Grant. This program offers outstanding graduate students grants in th...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 4, 2009, 11:33 am
I am going to offer what I believe are some intelligent perspectives on topics like evolution, creationism, intelligent design and science education. But I don't think any of them makes the point ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 3, 2009, 1:27 pm
Experimental Theology shared this eloquent speech by New York State Senator Diane Savino and I had to share it. Many of the points made have been made before, but I've rarely if ever heard them ma...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 3, 2009, 8:42 am
Following up on my post about the Bible, scholarship, and a recent blog post by Dan Wallace about liberal openness as a "myth," Doug Mangum offers a post that highlights the tension between Dan's ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 2, 2009, 7:15 pm
The Biblioblog Top 50 has now shifted to a biannual ranking, based on more objective criteria such as sexiness and pazang. I came in third - WOO HOO!
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 2, 2009, 2:38 pm
For those who missed my live performance in New Orleans, Jim Linville offers you the next best thing...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 2, 2009, 11:37 am
Stephen Colbert touches on the recent Vatican pronouncement on aliens: The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Dec 2, 2009, 11:28 am
According to Jim West, the blogger formerly known as NT Wrong has decided to stop doing the Biblioblog Top 50. I don't blame him, given the way the sheer number of biblioblogs has increased in rec...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 22, 2009, 11:01 pm
John H. Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate provides a very helpful overview of issues related to the study of the creation account in Genesis 1, its h...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 20, 2009, 10:05 pm
Jim Davila shared recent news about Mandaean refugees: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2009_11_15_archive.html#3691037173885699200
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 19, 2009, 11:01 pm
Proposition eighteen of John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One takes the stance that science education should be neutral when it comes to questions of purpose. A science course should by its ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 19, 2009, 10:50 am
I know that plans are afoot to tweet SBL. But will it degenerate into tweckling? This recent article in the Chronicle may serve as a cautionary note...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 19, 2009, 10:39 am
Proposition seventeen in John Walton's book The Lost World of Genesis One emphasizes that the theology of creation that one can elaborate on the basis of his understanding of Genesis 1 is stronger...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 19, 2009, 8:55 am
(HT Karyn Traphagen) There's also a provocative video aimed at young-earth creationists and their ilk (with entertaining images accompanying its challenge): (HT AIGBusted).
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 19, 2009, 6:33 am
Having posted on Sarah Palin's views on evolution (the plural "views" seems particularly appropriate), I realized that, if she does run for president in 2012, Saturday Night Live will be able to r...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 18, 2009, 5:41 pm
Scott's suggestion (in the comment section on an earlier post) that we have a "Candle In The Wind" sing-along at SBL got me thinking. Will there be a piano at the bibliobloggers' dinner? I'...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 18, 2009, 11:40 am
Doctor Who fans love episodes in which different regenerations of the Doctor meet up. And so today's episode features an encounter between two Dr. Jims. Dr. Jim of the thinking shop regeneration ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 18, 2009, 11:34 am
I've been meaning to post on the NCSE's entertaining, banana-humor-filled response to Ray Comfort's tampering with Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species. But Science and Religion T...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 18, 2009, 9:58 am
This sounds like an opportunity that many scholars will be interested in: Call for proposals for the 2010 Brill Fellowship at the Scaliger Institute The Scaliger Institute and Brill publishers invi...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 12, 2009, 10:34 pm
I continue to be amazed at how much excellent scholarship is available for free online. There are some I've mentioned in the past, but among those made available (or about which I learned) very re...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 12, 2009, 10:26 am
I just learned that two more reviews of my book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context have appeared. One is more of a summary than anything else, and it is by Patrick Ma...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 12, 2009, 9:00 am
The combination of musical ability and humor can be wonderful. I thus thought I'd share a video that I had seen before (and in fact shared on this blog more than a year ago) but which a commenter ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 12, 2009, 8:00 am
It seems to me that there is something appropriately symbolic about the state of affairs I'm going to describe. There is an important article by John A. T. Robinson, "The Last Tabu? The Self-Consc...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 11, 2009, 3:01 pm
Having decided to see where some of the videos of lectures that other bloggers shared were coming from, I found the University of California YouTube channel, which includes such lectures as the follow...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 11, 2009, 2:07 pm
Rather frustratingly, I noticed today that a copy of John A. T. Robinson's The Priority of John which I bought years ago in the UK has some printing errors and as a result is incomplete. I also se...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 11, 2009, 12:56 pm
On Wolfgang's Vault, there are also concerts by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Here's one clip: Next on my list of solos to work on is the ragtime-style piano solo from "Benny the Bouncer" by ELP....
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 11, 2009, 12:30 pm
Here's an item which has been making the newspapers in Sibiu, Romania, as well as various Romanian blogs. The CNSAS (the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives) has revealed tha...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 11, 2009, 12:00 pm
There seems to be a fair bit of theological humor circulating today. David Opderbeck shared a link to The Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism. To find it funny, you have to be familiar with both a certai...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 11, 2009, 11:05 am
My copy of John, Jesus, and History, Volume 2: Aspects of Historicity in the Fourth Gospel just arrived in the mail today. I contributed a chapter on the temple saying/incident. I'm looking forwar...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 5, 2009, 8:54 am
There's a video featuring "vocals" by Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye that has been referred to on many blogs I read. I only got around to listening to it today, and ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 4, 2009, 2:37 pm
Someone sent me a link to this helpful web page, an annotated version of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Classic Genesis from the Peter Gabriel era was often surreal and often drew on classical mytho...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 4, 2009, 12:39 pm
The first episode of the remake of the sci-fi series "V" didn't bother keeping the underlying appearance of the visitors a secret. Presumably they figured that, in a remake, there was no point in ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 4, 2009, 11:49 am
Michael Halcomb shared a link to a new blog, created by a former pastor of his, Tim McNinch. The blog is called Evolutionary Theology, and the expressed aim is to engage in theological reflection from...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 4, 2009, 11:36 am
Biblical Archaeology Review has reprinted Morton Smith's translation of "The Secret Gospel of Mark."
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 4, 2009, 11:30 am
After I shared the Brick Testament last supper image, Ari discovered that the artist responsible for it included Mary Magdalene in the painting. The truth about the conspiracy to hide the truth about...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 4, 2009, 7:57 am
I received an e-mail this morning about a Brick Testament poster that has been made available for sale on the Brick Testament web site. As a fan of the site, I thought I'd draw your attention to t...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 3, 2009, 11:58 am
Today Exploring Our Matrix will have its 500,000th visitor. Very soon, the moment will arrive when there will have been half a million hits on this blog. If you notice that the counter hits 500,000 on...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 3, 2009, 11:14 am
The new version of that classic 80s sci-fi show "V" debuts tonight on ABC. If you never saw the original version, you should probably avoid this "spoiler" at IO9, but if you have even a minimal famil...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 3, 2009, 9:32 am
A book I've been looking forward to reading arrived in the mail today. It is by Judy Klitsner, and the title is Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 3, 2009, 7:30 am
Kevin Scull has posted the latest Biblical Studies Carnival. Lots of great stuff, well worth the wait!
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 2, 2009, 2:39 pm
The title of this post is an intentional pun, since it could be a reference to the bananas belonging to Ray Comfort or to the fact that he is bananas. Both are relevant, since he is famous for introdu...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 2, 2009, 12:33 pm
The latest issue of the journal Interpretation, 63.4 (Oct 2009), includes a review of my book The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith (on p.426). If your library has a subscription to either the Gale ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 2, 2009, 12:21 pm
The Digital Commons at Butler University obtained permission to share an excerpt from my recent book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. It is chapter 5, which is on w...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 2, 2009, 12:07 pm
It is high time to resume my blogging through John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One. I particularly valued chapter 16, which begins by emphasizing that questions about purpose and process ar...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 2, 2009, 11:52 am
I thought that the videos of people playing the solo from the Genesis song "In The Cage" were helpful when I was trying to learn that solo, but look what someone else did: a tutorial that tells the na...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 2, 2009, 11:37 am
I increasingly turn to YouTube for a bit of music during lunch, and today I happened across this impressive medley of keyboard solos in a progressive rock idiom. Enjoy!
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 2, 2009, 8:15 am
I've been enjoying the ABC sci-fi series FlashForward, but I was annoyed at how they botched the treatment of Schroedinger's cat in the last episode. The original thought experiment envisaged ...
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James M. posted an article on Exploring Our Matrix - Nov 1, 2009, 9:10 pm
Brian LePort has offered his reply in our continuing conversation about Islam, Christianity, and God or gods.
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