The Atlantic just published this interesting short article on the Atacama "alien" -- a subject I have blogged about several times: "The Controversial Study of a Girl Who Ufologists Called ‘Alien’." As to the racism element, you can read the article -- the short...
ethics
Gene Editing on Demand (“Eugenics for Everyone”)
What could go wrong? Maybe Planned Parenthood will want in on this. Or not. It means babies being born. My bad. And another one: Progressive Eugenics Is Hardly History–the Science and Politics Have Just Evolved
David Meade and the Sept 23 Rapture: Living Testimony to Biblical Illiteracy
This is embarrassing. It shames Christ and tarnishes all those who sincerely try to understand Scripture and get people interested in it. There's just no other way to put it. Lord willing after nothing happens on Sept 23 David Meade will just quietly disappear. But I...
Science Now Able to Remotely Hack the Brain
Yes, you read that correctly. Good thing I don't need to make things up for my novels. Stuff like this makes freaking readers out a whole lot easier. Thanks, scientists!
The Portent Portending: Synthetic Genomes Are Just a Click Away
Readers of my fiction know that synthetic biology was a sub-plot element in The Portent. Well, we're moving down the road toward creating humans from scratch (or some sort of human derivative). This article describes a new process for creating a functioning gene. What...
The Current State of UFOlogy
This essay pretty much sums up the situation. It ain't good. Editor's note: the article below: In the past five years, I have identified an array of noteworthy concerns that I believe have derailed the study of Ufology. Regrettably, these problems have ruined the...
Another Illustration of Why Anomalist Research Needs to be Submitted to Peer Review
Remember the demon fairy fiasco? If not, read that link first. Although "peer review" in this case (below) isn't about submission to an academic journal, the principle is the same. Anomalous objects, experiences, events, etc. should be submitted for review by experts...
Five Differences Between Qur’anic (Sharia) Law and Old Testament Law
I'd recommend this interesting essay to readers. It was published by the Christian Research Institute. The essay has some deficiencies, in that there are other important differences (and nuances within the differences noted). For example, the OT law was also something...
Mike Will No Longer Be Appearing on Paul E. Stevenson’s Revolutions Radio Show
[Addendum: It's been a while since posting this, and Mr. Stevenson has apologized to me. Consequently, I may at some point in the future do something "on air" with him, thought not on this show. In short, he did the right thing. That's all I know. I don't monitor his...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice: Part 12
In this last post on the issue of the Bible, poverty, and social justice, I want to remind readers of several of the basic conclusions we reached in this series. The following conclusions were readily discernible in the biblical text after looking at the OT and NT...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice: Part 11: Parable of the Talents
We're close to the end of our series on social justice. Thanks to all those who've stayed with it, as it's taken quite a while. In this post I want to share some thoughts about the parable of the talents (minas). Introducing the Parable of the Talents One of the...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice: Part 10
In this installment of our series, we want to consider a passage in Acts 2 that is often brought into the discussion of a biblical view of social justice: Acts 2:42-47. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice: Part 9
In the preceding eight posts on this topic, we've focused on defining key terms so as to reveal how the Bible defines poverty and justice with respect to the poor. A lot of the discussion has been "negative" in the sense of focusing on what the Bible prohibits (i.e.,...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice, Part 8
In the last installment of this series we got into the NT vocabulary for the poor. My focus was the first of two essays I linked to earlier: "Poverty and Poor: New Testament" from Anchor Bible Dictionary "Rich and Poor" from the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels My...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice, Part 7
Time to get back to this series! Review of Earlier Part 6 It's been a while since I posted Part 6 of this study/discussion. Hopefully by now many of you have read the two items I linked to in Part 6: "Poverty and Poor: New Testament" from Anchor Bible Dictionary "Rich...