MetaCatholic

Eddie has tagged me with a meme of his own devising. The rules appear simple: name your impossible dream, and then tag some more folk.

Oh, dear, I mean I am so full of impossible dreams, from scoring a hat-trick for England – preferably against Germany, through to fronting a sell-out indie concert at Wembley. But deep down, I still nurture that desire to write the book that turns Pauline scholarship on its head, and becomes the book that everyone simply has to refer to. It carries on the back endorsements like “This is the book I wish I’d had the imagination, courage, and depth of understanding to write” from scholars as diverse as Dale Martin and Tom Wright. The biggest snag is I have absolutely no idea what such a book could contain.

I tag John Hobbins, ElShaddai Edwards, Peter Kirk and Iyov.

written by doug

I was going to write a blog post today, but I realized I didn’t have anything to say.

written by doug

A happy blogging birthday to metacatholic. My first post here was May 1st 2007, when I decided to take this blogging lark seriously and move over from some on-off-on desultory attempts on Blogger.

A few boring and nothing much to be proud of stats. In that year I’ve amassed 544 posts (so around one-and-a-half a day), had 61,102 visits, and blotted out 8,462 spam comments.

Many happy returns to me, and a big thank you to all those who I’ve complimented, insulted and otherwise interacted with here or in the comments of their own blogs.

written by doug

Jim West has done a terrific job in getting the new Biblical Studies Carnival up and running almost before the month has started. It is an excellent and wide-ranging survey, with lots of tasty links to follow–up. It is really impressive that Jim can read so widely among books, conference notices, discussion lists and blogs, and still be entirely wrong about such basics as the synoptic problem. One of the most noticeable things about Jim’s survey is the way he holds back his own opinions, and restrains himself is it’s clarity of forceful opinion, entertainingly expressed. I like a man who’s not afraid to be wrong in public. (Possibly the only thing he has in common with the Bishop of Durham.)

No, seriously, Jim, thank you for an excellent and ultra-punctual resource. There’s a lot here to browse I hadn’t seen.

written by doug

This is weird. I reckoned the most significant post I made today was this one. According to my stats no-one (or possibly one person only) has visited it. Did I just choose a boring title? Oh, the mysteries of blogging. (If it doesn’t get at least one visit after this anguished plea I may have to adopt an extreme strategy which will include advising Lingamish to avert his eyes from some strong language.

written by doug

I’m afraid I must resist being tagged by John Hobbins. I’m far too stupid to have heard of some of these people. I think the list is far too biased in favour of political scientists. I think that by being biased in terms of being active in public life, the list ignores some of the real intellectuals who drive those in public life. (What no Alisdair MacIntyre?!) I simply don’t think some of the people on the list are intellectuals. Dawkins is a very clever man and a polemicist, Chomsky a pseudo-intellectual whose reputation rests on linguistic obfuscation, and a predilection for being outrageously stupid in his support for totalitarian regimes wherever they are to be found. So, sorry, John, I don’t like this list, and I’m not showing up my ignorance by playing the game.

written by doug

Don’t be surprised if you see a few changes here and there. David wanted to see this theme again. I’m still after “the look”. Will probably go back to the Mac theme soon. (I’m looking for the right bit of css to alter the main post texts with this one.)

Update 27 April Back to the previous look

written by doug

What were they looking for when they typed this?
What did they find here with it?

bacon thong

This may be the most bizarre search term that has ever landed up at this blog. Even more bizarrely the same search phrase has landed here twice today. The problem is the only things I can think of to say are very rude indeed.

written by doug

I posted the other day on what looked like a weird creationist comment I’d received but not published, from a man called Herman Cummings. Now he has commented on that post.

What I have been teaching is not new. I’ve been “preaching” it since 1993, but the powers that be keep what I say from the public (news media), and pastors, priests, and rabbis are too stubborn to host my seminars (along with institutions of learning). … Hear me, and get your heads out of the sand. Moses wrote about six visions which he was shown by God while on Mt. Sinai, in 1598 BC. Those six visions, described in Genesis chapter one, were not in chronological order. Neither were any of them contained in the same week. … All doctrines which you are familiar with are false!!

So there you have it. Mr Cummings is the world’s expert on Genesis, and the only reason we haven’t heard his theories is because “the powers that be” are conspiring to keep us in ignorance of his brilliance. It is positively shocking.

I couldn’t resist a quick Google. I came across, among other things, this page on the history news network

This letter is to inform you that I teach a class on Genesis to science teachers. The title of the course is “Moses & Creation: Biblical Reality”. It is a 15-hour class that tells the truth about the first three chapters of Genesis, so that the teachers won’t be speaking in ignorance about what Genesis is saying to mankind. Neither theology nor secular science are anywhere close to knowing what advanced scientific knowledge is contained in Genesis.

My name is Herman Cummings. I am the foremost terrestrial authority on the book of Genesis.

Now, somehow, I have the teeniest stirring of an inkling that trying to have a rational argument with Mr Cummings might not be the world’s most productive, or indeed possible, course of action. So what do you do when the seriously deluded start leaving comments on your blog? Ignore them, delete them, or ban them. Whatever I do, I have a feeling it will feed the conspiracy troll.

written by doug

I’ve upgraded to the spiffy new WordPress 2.5. Then, partly to play with some of its features, I’ve updated the blogroll, and changed the theme. The original theme behind i3Theme 1.6 was designed by N.Design Studio and customized by MangoOrange.

I must say this seems like a really good upgrade to WordPress. A few days ago Nick Norelli asked why on earth people would pay to blog when you can do it for free. Well, I don’t pay that much, but I like the sense of making my own decisions. Should I come across a better blogging system, I can change over, and keep the same address. Should blogging cease to be attractive, or I want to do something else, or it all just becomes passé, I still get to keep my web home. I think that’s worth it. Having said all that, if WordPress keep their upgrades going like this, I’m highly unlikely to change.

written by doug \\ tags: Blogging, Wordpress