Monthly Archives: October 2010

Standards and Censorship

The recent discussion in the blog-o-sphere about Roland Boer’s controversial SBL paper title (see Deane Galbraith’s recent Bulletin post for the details) raises important questions about what sort of professional standards scholars should strive towards. Standards are both necessary and … Continue reading

Posted in Craig Martin | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

"Sausage" Blacklisted by the Society of Biblical Literature!

A controversy threatens to expand out of all proportion over an academic’s use of the term “sausage” in the title of his paper scheduled for the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in November. The paper, by ballsy Australian biblical scholar Roland Boer, is provocatively entitled … Continue reading

Posted in Deane Galbraith, Pedagogy | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Jesus vs. Google

Yesterday evening, as I happened to be walking to the Banksy film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, I noticed this amusing piece of street art: (Moray Place, Dunedin, New Zealand – Artist unknown) Not bad … but wrong font choice.

Posted in Deane Galbraith, Religion and Popular Culture | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Odds on the Resurrection of Jesus: 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1

There are quite a few academic and quasi-academic studies in which statistical analysis seems to be employed as a substitute for thinking. It is, perhaps, fairly understandable why some people are tempted by the allure of numbers. Those mysteriously complex formulae, mindnumblingly boring statistics and obscure mathematical notations lend a magical … Continue reading

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What would British Novelist John le Carré have asked Tony Blair had he interviewed him?

What’s the one question that British novelist John le Carré would have asked Tony Blair, if he had had the chance? John le Carré answers in a recent interview with Democracy Now: I think I would have asked him one … Continue reading

Posted in Deane Galbraith, Politics and Religion | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Daisy Khan at Syracuse University

I met Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and one of the minds behind the Park51 project, when she came to my campus today, first at a lunch hosted by the interfaith Hendricks Chapel, then for an interview … Continue reading

Posted in Donovan Schaefer, Religion in the News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Two Maps

I came across two maps today. The first one is a joke; it’s titled “Europe according to the United States of America”: As far as I can tell this map is designed to poke fun at and expose American stereotypes … Continue reading

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