Mind the gaps
Illumination from the Codex Aemilianensis, 992. In the tenth century we had no reason to suspect Adam and Eve had not been actual people. Now we do. Image source: University of Florida God lives in the gaps. And the gaps must be getting downright cozy for God. The God of the gaps fallacy runs deep. [...]
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 [...]
Big Head Todd and the mass extinction problem
Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd and the Monsters recording at Ardent Studios in Memphis. I missed BHTM back in the 1990′s when they had their major-scale success; I blame graduate school for this. But a good friend introduced them to me several years ago and to this day I am grateful to him [...]
Meet the new conspiracy
The phases of Venus as photographed in 2002 by Chris Proctor at the Torquay Boys’ Grammar School Observartory in Devon, England. It was Galileo’s observations of Venus’s phases that most powerfully argued against the ancient geocentric system of the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. Galileo’s observations did not convince anyone of the truth of the Copernican system, [...]
Worldwide arks!
A full-scale replica of Giraffa camelopardalis peers out from the deck of a full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark. This particular replica (of the ark, not the giraffe) is being built by Johan Huibers of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. Photo: Michel de Groot/The New York Times Just yesterday, the New York Times posted an article about a [...]
The end of faith? Bring it
And he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Anonymous, Jesus and the Rich Man, 11th century. Image source: Index of Armenian Art By all appearances, the end is near. That’s what the scientists are telling us, anyway. It seems that a group of specialists in the (really cool) field of nonlinear dynamics have [...]
Repost: An ash heap with a view
Oldřich Kulhánek, Job No. 1. Lithograph (2002) This post was published first on 14 September 2010. It seems appropriate for today, Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent. The Old Testament books of Wisdom are among my favorites in the Christian canon (they are also present in the Hebrew Scriptures). [...]
Awake, my Sol
Sol in action. Captured in the ultraviolet by SDO, this movie shows an erupting solar prominence and covers about 90 minutes (24 seconds per frame). This may make one think the prominence moves pretty slowly, but scale is important here: Placed side-to-side, about 20 Earths could fit across the frame. So this curtain of ionized [...]
Introducing Art Sundays
Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918. Image source: Wikimedia Commons Today Pastor Julie preached a beautiful sermon on being open to new things. So we’re thinking it’s a great day to start a new thing. It is Transfiguration Sunday, the day Christians worldwide remember the story of Christ’s metamorphosis before the eyes of Peter, James, and [...]
