July 25, 2006
Yahoo! Music Against DRM
The
Yahoo! Music Blog reported this week that
Yahoo! has convinced Sony BMG to release customized Jessica Simpson tracks as unrestricted mp3s. Yahoo! points out that the only ones who benefit from DRM are the companies that make the technology. As far as musicians, labels, and consumers are concerned, the music provider is spending
more money to provide
less value. Go Yahoo!
(HT:
EFF Newsletter)
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July 24, 2006
William Lane Craig on the Historicity of the Resurrection
Over the course of this summer, I've been forming an
argument for belie in the Bible.
Part 2 of my argument was critically depndent on the claim that "if we accept ... [the] postulate ... that a very powerful being is trying to get our attention, then the most coherent ... [explanation] ... is that ... Jesus did in fact rise from the dead." This is, of course, a fairly modest claim, as it explicitly presupposes a pretty substantial chunk of theology (there is a God, he actually cares what we think/do, he wants us to know about him, etc.). However, some would still dispute it. Some time ago, after reading
this post on
The Prosblogion, I downloaded the transcript of the
debate between William Lane Craig and Bart D. Ehrman on the historicity of the resurrection, and I've just now got around to reading it...
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July 22, 2006
Ekklesia and the Etymological Fallacy
Not long ago, I wrote a post suggesting that the New Testament may have
consciously made use of the language of Athenian democracy, especially in its usage of the words
ekklesia and
kerux.
JollyBlogger has now posted on
the etymological fallacy in our understanding of the ekklesia (HT:
Parableman). The etymological fallacy occurs when an interpreter uses a piece of information about the history of a word which was unknown to the author or, at least, which the author was not thinking about in his usage of the word...
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July 19, 2006
Truth-Makers, Truth-Conditions, and Middle Knowledge
Middle knowledge is a problem that has been bothering me for quite some time now. It goes like this: middle knowledge is knowledge of the truth or falsity of counterfactuals of freedom, where a counterfactual of freedom (sometimes called a counterfactual of creaturely freedom) is a statement about what some agent having libertarian free will would do in a purely hypothetical situation, i.e. one that never has and never will occur. Libertarian free will means that one is free because one could do otherwise than one actually does. So, for instance, if human beings (including me) have libertarian free will...
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July 18, 2006
No Manslaughter Charges Filed in Jean Charles de Menezes Case
An
official press release from the UK's
Independent Police Complaints Commission announced yesterday that, following an investigation of the brutal
execution without trial of innocent Tube passenger
Jean Charles de Menezes, the London Police Commissioner will face charges of "failing to provide for the health, safety and welfare" of Mr. Menezes under the "Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974." There will be no murder or manslaughter charges...
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Why Believe the Bible?
Part 3: Jesus' Witness to the Hebrew Bible
Here, finally, is part 3 of my
series on divine revelation. The story so far:
part 2 argued that the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth constitute a self-revelation of God to mankind, and that the New Testament documents, and especially the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), constitute generally reliably historical sources as to the content of that revelation. These points will be assumed to have been established (but feel free to comment on the previous post if you want to contest them), and I will now argue that the entirety of the Hebrew Bible is included by reference in this revelation...
Continue reading "Why Believe the Bible?
Part 3: Jesus' Witness to the Hebrew Bible"
July 15, 2006
Presbytery of Mississippi Rejects PCUSA General Assembly Resolution
Reformation 21 has posted a
resolution of the Presbytery of Mississippi declaring that "in the passage of Recommendation 5 of the Peace, Unity, and Purity Task Force Report" the PCUSA General Assembly committed "a grievous error seriously lacking Biblical, Confessional and Constitutional integrity" and thus has effectively "broken fellowship with the Presbytery of Mississippi." The resolution in question permitted individual presbyteries to selectively ignore a provision of the PCUSA constitution requiring that clergy "live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or in chastity in singleness," thus effectively allowing the ordination of active homosexuals...
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July 14, 2006
How Constant are 'Physical Constants'?
MSNBC is reporting on rising doubts among scientists - particularly Cambridge Univeristy astronomer Michael Murphy - as to
whether key physical constants are actually constant. The new evidence goes beyond
c-decay or the
variable speed of light cosmology, and posits changes in the constants governing the four fundamental forces...
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July 12, 2006
Infallible vs. Irresistable Grace
Gerald at
Iustificare has written several posts on grace and free will in recent weeks. The latest post,
a discussion of Augustine's treatment of the issue, introduces an interesting distinction I had not heard before: the distinction of infallible vs. irresistable grace. Gerald describes the distinction as follows: Infallible grace is �grace that always accomplishes it purpose� �nothing more or less. Infallible grace can be resisted, but is not. Infallible grace can fail, but does not...
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July 11, 2006
July 4, 2006