Todd's Blog

It's here!  I've been working on this for about two months now, and I think it's ready for prime time.  We'll see.  If you don't care about these ramblings and just want to see the patreon, check it out at patreon.com/researchreports . Lately I've become increasingly thoughtful about scholarly communication.  I've been reading a lot of dissatisfaction with peer review and scholarly publication, things like abusive peer reviewers sabotaging papers, the value of preprints, the need for publication forums that are not owned by iniquitously price-gouging companies, and the desire for open access publication.  That put me to thinking about what a truly Christian community of healthy, scholarly communication would look like, and I'm not sure it looks like the world of peer review.  Maybe that has a place, but then again, maybe not.  I'm certain it doesn't look like social media, but maybe there are elements there that we could adapt. All of that's ...

On Let's Talk Creation this week  [ the episode on YouTube ], I briefly mentioned the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell as an example of something that might be too much doctrine read into too few verses.  This inspired a few questions and comments, and I felt it warranted a bit of clarity (which I thought was clear enough in the episode but evidently not).  I'm glad to have the chance to elaborate on a point that didn't need to be elaborated on in the podcast. That part of our conversation was inspired by a point in the Apostles' Creed, "He [Christ] descended in to Hell," which is an expression of an earlier belief that after his death and before his resurrection, Jesus went to Hades, the place of the dead, preached the gospel to the spirits there, and took the righteous dead to heaven after his resurrection.  This is collectively known as the doctrine of the "Harrowing of Hell" (to harrow is to torture, as in, Jesus struck a blow against hell by f...

Happy New Year!  I want to say a special thank you to everyone who contributed to Core Academy's fund drive last month.  It looks like we'll finish with a little more than $25,000, and I'm very grateful to each and every person who made a gift on our behalf.  It's true that we didn't hit our goal, but I'm glad we got close.  I think we have some work to do for 2022, especially getting back out in public.  It's hard to convince people we're an effective ministry when so much of our work is happening behind the scenes.  And I need  to finish one of these books I'm working on! Speaking of books, have you seen Paul Garner's new book Fossils and the Flood: Exploring Worlds with Science and Scripture ?  This book has been a loooong time in the works, and I'm excited to see it in print at last.  It's a picture book that gives a creationist perspective on the fossil record.  It's not exactly for young children, but kids with an interest in fo...