Someone just sent me this short article from the Daily Beast by church historian Candida Moss: "Nero, the Execution of Peter and Paul, and the Biggest Fake News in Early Christian History." Basically, it's about how Christians really weren't persecuted by Nero as part...
Catholic
Vatican Library Provides Online Access to High Resolution Images of New Testament Papyri
Jean-Baptiste Piggin of the Macro-Typography blog has a nice listing of available manuscripts here. If you're interested in New Testament textual criticism, papyrology, and the transmission of the Greek New Testament, you'll want to take a look. If you read Greek, you...
The Pope Wants to Baptize Aliens (Again)
SIGH. Those of you who read my material (especially the biblical stuff) know I don't bash Catholicism, though I have serious disagreements with it. (I'm here to irritate everyone, not just Catholics). 🙂 I have no doubt that this pope has a good heart, and I love his...
Salvation and Extraterrestrials: Catholic Theologian’s Vast Universe
I've mentioned Thomas O'Meara before on this blog. O'Meara is a Catholic theologian who has taken an interest in the theological implications of a genuine extraterrestrial reality. I don't agree with certain of his positions (or perhaps it might be best to call them...
Pope Okay with Baptizing Aliens
More clear theological thinking from the catholic church. Honestly, this is muddled in so many ways: from baptismal regeneration to the failure to read the clear words of Romans 5:12, that it is HUMANITY that is morally guilty and in need of atonement for the sin of a...
Bad Day for Vatican Conspiracists: 80,000 Manuscripts to Be Digitized
Just when you were almost convinced that the Vatican wasn't asleep at the switch in its herculean effort to keep its ancient manuscripts secret. Bummer. You can read about the initiative here. Oh, wait . . . I'll bet that all these years they've been busy pulling...
Blogging With Dr. Barry, Part 1
Some readers brought this link to my attention this past weekend. It's a response on the part of Dr. Barry Downing to some thoughts I had on his work some time ago. For those who don't know who Barry Downing is, he's the author of a book called Flying Saucers and the...
UFOs, ETs, and Religion (Balducci’s Conundrum, Part 5)
It's been a while since I've posted on Msgr. Balducci's conundrum. The rabbit trails have been good, though, and we'll revisit some of them in more detail in the future. Those who didn't catch the previous four posts on this can find them on the blog. Briefly, though,...
UFOs, ETs, and Religion (Balducci’s Conundrum, Part 4)
In my third post summarizing religion scholar Christopher Partridge's overview of UFO religions and abduction spiritualities, I noted the similarity between the ascended masters of occult Theosophy and the space aliens described by George Adamski. In my closing...
Thoughts on “Roman Catholic Views of Extraterrestrial Intelligence”
As noted in an earlier post, the document When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-Information Contact contains an interesting essay entitled, "Roman Catholic Views of Extraterresrial Intelligence" by Douglas A. Vakoch. The essay begins on page 181 of the PDF file....
UFOs, ETs, and Religion (Balducci’s Conundrum, Part 3)
In the last post, I quoted Christopher Partridge's article in UFO Religions as follows: "Whilst there are some differences between the theosophical masters / mahatmas of wisdom (who were usually thought to reside in Tibet), and the early accounts of aliens, in actual...
Vatican Baptizes ET
It's not Balducci speaking (yet). There have been a lot of articles lately on how the Vatican's chief astronomer says there might be ETs. I'm trying not to yawn. Actually, this is OLD news--as in CENTURIES and even a MILLENNIUM old. Amazing how people don't know that...
UFOs, ETs, and Religion, Part 2 (Balducci’s Conundrum continued)
As I mentioned in my last post, Christopher Partridge writes the first chapter of the book he edited (UFO Religions). The introductory chapter is called "Understanding UFO Religions and Abduction Spiritualities." Partridge begins by briefly overviewing "the emergence...
Balducci’s Conundrum (another short sidebar)
In my first post I took umbrage with Msgr. Balducci's claim that the UFO and alien question (or reported phenomena) have nothing to do with the demonic realm. Let's unpack that a bit. I questioned Balducci's claim on two grounds that may not have been clear: (1) Since...
UFOs, ETs, and Religion, part 1
If you've read the "Purpose" page on this blog, you know that the focus of this blog is the intersection of the UFO phenomenon (and its spin-off phenomenon, "alien" abduction) with religion. While my academic and personal background is Judeo-Christianity, I'm not...