MetaCatholic

Since asking for submissions I have discovered that Tyler forgot he had asked me to do the July Carnival, and has lined up Jim Getz. Send your submissions to him instead. Originally he’d asked me to do the June one then decided he wanted to do it himself. I think it highly likely it might have appeared by now had I been doing it, so colour me mildly pissed off all round.

Just before he dropped off the face of the earth (hopefully not because of any serious problems relocating his mother) Tyler asked me if I would do the next Biblical Studies Carnival. This should be Carnival 31, although I don’t know what the non-appearance (so far) of 30 will do to that numbering.

My own view is that June has been a slow and meagre month for posting on the Bible, so I’d be grateful if those who read a wider variety of blogs could actually offer some submissions. Please let me have your suggestions (remember they must be related to the critical study of Scripture) of good blog entries posted during the month of June.

Please ignore the normal carnival address and send them to doug dot chaplin at gmail dot com.

I’m not at all convinced that having automatically generated links is a good idea. If you rant a lot, I guess you can be expected to be linked with others who rant, even when you find their rants distasteful.

Clearly God is punishing Jim for taking me off his blogroll. Jim, I suggest that a) you put me back on and b) that you disable these links or stop ranting.

I don’t know which search engine they were using, but I was fascinated to note I’d been found today by a search term typed in in German, (madonna mit kind) yet the only possible posts they could have found (I think) were entirely in English. I suppose because so much of the web is in English, I really hadn’t given this much thought, but this suggests to me that search may also routinely involve translation, and the algorithms for that must be horrendously complicated.

Just one instance where what’s behind the curtain is even more fascinating than what’s in front of it.

From time to time I am well and truly baffled by search terms. Here are two recent ones. The first leaves me with no idea what they were looking for. 

missionary communion trinity creator red

It’s the combination, and especially that final use of the word “red”, that really confuses me. A red what? Creator? Missionary?

The second (stop now if you’re offended) leaves me with no clue why they ended up here. And is perhaps also a reminder of just how diverse the web-reading world is in what it is looking for.

essential greek words fuck

I’m not sure whether the response should be “Do they really? Oh well, that’s one way to get a neologism.”

Sometimes I’m not quite sure what counts as spam. Today I received a comment left on my About page, which I’ve treated as spam. It was in no way a response to anything I said there, or have said anywhere on my blog. It appeared to be entirely generic, and came with what looked like a false web address entered. In content it was a dismissal of the freewill response to theodicy and related questions, with half a not very good argument and half a simple ex cathedra pronouncement on it’s stupidity. The tone and overall thrust appeared to be “and how silly your belief is”.

Now I might have misread the genre and intent of this comment, and if so, I apologise. But it also put me in mind of the remarkable number of comments I come across from atheists on any religious story (or religion related story) on the mainstream media sites. Many (most?) of them are ranting and repetitive, concerned more to dismiss the general thrust of belief than to respond to any particular point made in the story. 

There are three things that baffle me about this. 

1. Why do so many atheists seem to spend so much of their time thinking about religion, and seeking to rebuke it? If life is short, and that’s it, then why waste time getting even slightly worked up about it?
2. Why, if it seems to be an article of faith that atheism is rational, and religion is not, are so many of the comments devoid of anything remotely resembling a rational argument?
3. Why are all the atheists who comment fundamentalists? That is, the God and theology they oppose is nearly always fundamentalist Protestant, and just occasionally Vatican I anti-modernist Catholicism. Do liberal Christians never become atheists? Or is there something about the personality type that’s prone to having conversion experiences and evangelising for their point of view?

Oh, and I have no idea what the answers to those questions are.

A big thank you to James McGrath for honouring MetaCatholic with a blogging award. This is an award for blogs that make me think and make my day.  (Isn’t it fascinating how in the past indicative that’s a compliment, and in the present imperative it’s a threat.) This one seems to have spread across quite a wide range of blogs, so I’m especially flattered to receive it. The rules are simple:

1) Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.

2) Acknowledge the post of the award giver.

3) Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news!

I should say, at this point, that I’m enjoying backtracking this award and discovering some new (to me) and interesting blogs. You may find the same worth doing.

Like James, I find it particularly difficult to whittle it down to five, but here goes (in no particular order).

• Jon Birch for the ever-stimulating Adventures of ASBO Jesus (non-UK readers, an ASBO is an anti-social behaviour order).
• John Hobbins of Ancient Hebrew Poetry for engaging my attention in areas I didn’t know I was interested in.
• Andrew Brown, a journalist whose thoughts are always worth reading, and whose posts both around religion and science and the reporting of religion are particularly stimulating.
• Halden, of Inhabitatio Dei, who often takes a conventional topic and manages to find the unconventional slant on it (and who also seems to find the same things funny as I do).
• Finally, last, but by no means least, for those as fascinated by words as I am, Separated by a Common Language is an often wry, always interesting take on the different ways we fail to communicate across the pond.

I hope, if you’ve not encountered any of them before, you will enjoy them as much as I do.

I was quite impressed with this theme when I was browsing. Put that alongside the fact that I was getting bored with my old one, and it’s time for a change.

I’ve meant to get around to Ben’s One Movie Meme for ages, so here’s my contribution.

1. One movie that made you laugh
There’s Something about Mary

2. One movie that made you cry
Shadowlands

3. One movie you loved when you were a child
Batman – The Movie (i.e. Adam West and Burt Ward)

4. One movie you’ve seen more than once
Wargames

5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it
The Faculty

6. One movie you hated
Derek Jarman’s Jubilee 

7. One movie that scared you
Carrie

8. One movie that bored you
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

9. One movie that made you happy
Amélie

10. One movie that made you miserable
Road to Perdition

11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see
I might be kidding myself when I say, “I can’t think of one – It’s just that I don’t much like horror films

… comes from Michael Bird.

In sum, our Southern Baptist Identity must be rotted in the consensus fidei of the Christian Church.

I don’t normaly kriticise other peeple for there misteaks, since I make enough of my own, but I couldn’t resist this one. (I do hope Mike will leave this in.)