One world
Kathy Chapman, Stephen Jay Gould. Image source: Wikimedia Commons Stephen Jay Gould was one of the foremost scientists of the last 100 years. He was an evolutionist and paleontologist and a prolific writer. A self-described “agnostic Jew,” he was fascinated with religion. In 1997 he wrote an influential article for Natural History. The title of [...]
Job redux: Loss and the glory of the world meet in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life
Sean Penn as Jack in Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life. Penn works his world-weary visage to great effect in the film Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here. In fact, I’m having a hard time even imagining a spoiler for this film. I could tell you the whole thing and it wouldn’t change its [...]
Keep your eye on the story
As Scott at Scotteriology says, this must be what drove Noah to drink after the flood. WARNING Part 1 (above) is fantastic but Part 2 gets really tedious and features some harsh language Henry, my 11-year-old son, has a new hobby: magic. He’s getting pretty good at it, too. Whenever I take our toddler out [...]
On sex and negative theology
Daniel Bonnell, Adam and Eve, 2011. Black crayon on grocery bag paper. See more of Bonnell’s works here. Used with permission of the artist Back in my physics grad school days I hung out with a lot of people who were students at the University’s divinity school. And several times, just for grins, I would [...]
On Christian atheism and (reverent) deconstruction
Oxymoron, by Camera Freak. By all accounts this guy in Hyde Park (London) is quite persistent. This picture was taken in 1998 and he was still at it in 2007. He may be there today. Apparently he sets up in a prominent location; have any Alert Readers ever seen him? Photo credit: Peter Gordon In [...]
Meet good interatheist Chris Stedman
An inverted Chris Stedman and his “awful giraffe,” which I find rather endearing. Stedman is a humanist interfaith activist. Yes, you read that correctly. Image taken from NonProphet Status, Stedman’s blog Read Stedman’s shirt (in a mirror). It says “Good (Without God).” This particular atheist cliché always makes my head hurt. On one hand, as [...]
Door by door
Doorway in Galileo’s villa. I took this photo in 2003 when I visited Arcetri, a small Italian village just to the south of Florence. This is the interior of the house in which Galileo lived under house arrest from 1633 until he died in 1643. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art [...]
