A bunch of recent links to things related to faith in the digital world.

• Twitter’s direct line to God linking Twitter to create paper prayers for Jerusalem’s Western Wall.
• America Magazine – Religious Life in the Age of Facebook (hat tip to Paul)
• Introducing the Uniting Church in Australia Blog: Cyber-church anyone?
• YouTube – Hebrews Mashup as Star Wars Intro Text Scroll

Digital Faith
Exploring the contours of faith in our digital world

How do the Christian faith and the Internet impact upon each other? What place might the Bible have in our digital world?

Come and join us as our panel of expert speakers engage with these topics and others relating to issues of faith in the digital world.

Speakers
Mark Brown (Blog)
CEO, Bible Society New Zealand
Founder Anglican Cathedral in Second Life.

Stephen Garner (blog)
Lecturer in Theology and Popular Culture,
School of Theology, University of Auckland.

Heidi Campbell (blog)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Communication, Texas A&M University
Author of Exploring Religious Community Online.

Tim Bulkeley (blog)
Lecturer in Old Testament, Carey Baptist College
Developer of the Amos Hypertext Commentary & podBible projects.

Saturday 5 September 2009, 9am-12pm

OGGB4 Lecture Theatre, Level 0, Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road, The University of Auckland
(Map of city campus (PDF))

Please REGISTER your attendance by Wednesday 2 September with theologyadmin@auckland.ac.nz

Cost $5 (morning tea provided)
Parking under Owen G Glenn building, $5 flat rate

You can download the flyer here:

From the bizzare, cult TV file – New Zealand On Screen releases a couple of episodes of “A Haunting We Will Go” featuring the milk-loving vampire, Count Homogenised. I have some vague recollection about seeing the character live somewhere as a child. Anyway, video links below:

• NZ On Screen – A Haunting We Will Go – Pilot Episode
• NZ On Screen – A Haunting We Will Go – Cellar Ghost

(I can’t believe I watched this stuff as a kid).

On a milk related theme – does anyone know if the “Milk Bottle Rap” that Anchor(?) used to advertise milk with on TV is online somewhere?

I’m teaching a new ethics course this semester and the other week we looked briefly at whether it was ever ethical to lie. As part of that, the students looked at Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s actions in World War 2, which generated some interesting discussion. Then this popped up on the radar – Bonhoeffer’s ethics not for show – Eureka Street. Worth having a quick skim over.

A few bits and pieces related to science and religion from the net this week:

• Are Public S&R Discussions Irrelevant? – Science and Religion Today
• The Vision Lives On – Science and the Sacred
• Sean Carroll’s Handy Grid – Science and Religion Today

I’m glad someone finally said this in a public forum. My observations from watching my own kids play sport and the different teams they play is that the comments here aren’t far from the mark for some teams. Sad but true, but the fun of playing is taken out of it. (And don’t get me started on seeing 7 year old kids playing sport in strip covered in so many sponsors’ logos it’s like watching a mob of billboards playing football).

See Junior rugby child’s play no more – Rugby – NZ Herald News.

Also, I caught a few episodes of “The Cup” on TV. A little close to the bone sometimes (just like satire should be).

Continuing my current interest in things vampire, here’s an interesting article on the continual reinvention of the vampire in popular culture by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, particularly in the face of technological change:

And through awe, we once again regain spiritual humility. The current vampire pandemic serves to remind us that we have no true jurisdiction over our bodies, our climate or our very souls. Monsters will always provide the possibility of mystery in our mundane “reality show” lives, hinting at a larger spiritual world; for if there are demons in our midst, there surely must be angels lurking nearby as well. In the vampire we find Eros and Thanatos fused together in archetypal embrace, spiraling through the ages, undying.

Forever.

See Op-Ed Contributors – Why Vampires Never Die – NYTimes.com.

Hat tip to Mary

Cute article on resurrecting old personal computers for modern tasks – love the Apple II and C-64 web server idea. See Reboot for the retro PC relics | Stuff.co.nz.