They’ve been smart phone apps for a while with lectionaries and orders of service, as well as apps to help you pray, meditate and confess. This one, however, looks like it’s got some kind of holy imprimatur.

See Forgive me i-Father

A symposium on Science and religion in the 21st century: faith in science, science in faith.
Programme

Prof Jeff Tallon FRSNZ

Truth or true? – faith and science rubbing shoulders

Prof Bob White FRS

Natural disasters: acts of God or results of human folly?

Dr Graeme Finlay

The story in our genes

Rev Dr Graham O’Brien

Evolving evolution

Prof Gareth Jones CNZM

Manufacturing humans: the borderlands between human and divine control

Prof John McClure

Psychology and religion: is there a ghost in the machine?

Dr Stephen Garner/ Dr Nicola Hoggard-Creegan

The view from theology

When: 8.30am-6pm, Saturday 14 March 2009

Where: Theatre 401-439, ‘Neon Foyer’, Engineering School, Symonds Street, The University of Auckland

Please register for the symposium by Wednesday 11 March, with p.medhora@auckland.ac.nz
Cost $20, non-waged people $10 (refreshments and lunch provided)
Parking under Owen G Glenn building, $5 flat rate

For more details click on the picture or on the links below:

Bob White – Lecture and Symposium – Leaflet.pdf

Bob White – Lecture and Symposium – Poster.pdf

Firstly, 12 Elegant Examples of Evolution | Wired Science from Wired.com.

Secondly, Creation Lens: Exploring the World, Discovering God (EWDG) with the related Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (ITEST) DVD resources. (Hat tip to Tensegrities » Blog Archive » Creation lens).

After listening to Steve’s presentation on River as a Christ-figure in the movie Serenity, I felt inspired to walk up to Heroes for Sale and grab the last two parts of the latest Serenity mini-series “Better Days” from Dark Horse comics.

Suffice to say I was disappointed. The story seemed to drag, some of the characterisation and language seemed “off”, and it didn’t really grab me like the first mini-series “Those Left Behind” did. Plus, there’s the sense of “dead men walking” if you’ve seen the film. Still, it is Serenity (and walking up the hill to the shop did clear my head of conference ‘fug’ and stretch my legs after a day sitting listing to stuff).

I also picked up the next issue in Image Comics “Transhuman” series – which deals with venture capital funding in this issue. It’s okay, but again the previous issue was much better.

See also:

Greenflame · Serenity: Better Days
Greenflame · Transhuman – The comic mini-series

Very busy this week juggling SBL + work stuff in the gaps – always a problem when a conference is happening on your own campus.

Good to catch up with lots of different people over the week.

Various random highlights included:

Going to a presentation in an ecological stream and in the question time finding out about Transition Towns (see also Transition Towns New Zealand Aotearoa)

Having Steve (the emergentkiwi) to stay for a couple of nights and enjoying his paper/presentation on female Christic figures in cinema (especially in “Whale Rider”, “The Fifth Element” and “Serenity”).

Seeing a new crop of postgrads (and a few undergrads) from around the country front up and present their research. Some really good presentations today which bodes well for new people coming through in biblical studies in this part of the world.

Doing my paper on “Broadening the application of the co-creator metaphor”, getting some good feedback, and surviving getting into my talk before realizing I was using the version of the paper without the last minute changes I’d made to it the night before. (Luckily I had the new version on me and could grab it without breaking stride too much).

Listening to an intriguing paper after mine on Melanesian perceptions of the world (especially time) and how that shapes the enculturation of the the gospel and teaching theology. Some good material there that would intersect with developing an Oceanian theology of technology.

It’s been a long week so I’m now looking forward to a lazy weekend.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away Darren wrote in an email “i’ll do serenity asap…”. That was June 2006.

Now, however, he’s started the great Firefly Study Series and you can find the first parts at:

• Firefly Study Series – Introduction | Youth Ministry Blog
• Firefly Study Series – Episode 01 – Serenity | Youth Ministry Blog
• Firefly Study Series – Episode 02 – The Train Job | Youth Ministry Blog

He’s also noted the link (via Tensegrities) to a series of Firefly clips over at Cowgirl Jazz.

For those of you who are suffering from needing a Serenity or Firefly fix, then Dark Horse’s Firefly/Serenity mini-series “Better Days” is now out. I picked up issue 1 the other day, and it’s a good read if you’re a fan-boy or girl. Actually, it’s a good read for a comic in general – I’ve read some not so good comics recently from the library’s trade paperback/graphic novel selection. If you can do the character’s voices in your head while reading then it really rocks.

More details over at Dark Horse Comics > Profile > Serenity: Better Days #1 (of 3).

Oh, and I see the “Star Gate: The Ark of Truth” is already out on DVD in NZ. Seeing as I’m still finishing off Season 9 of Stargate SG-1 it’ll be a while before I get there, but it’s nice to know it’s waiting for me. Just like I’ll get to “Battlestar Galactica: Razor” when I’ve knocked the last few episodes of Season 3 off. I must admit I’m struggling to be enthralled with the end of BSG season 3 maybe it’s better watched one episode per week rather than three episodes at a time. Currently, I’m trying to avoid Season 4 spoilers – which seems to be harder than it should be – people keep putting them in their blog posts without spoiler warnings!

Frantic here at the moment. Old job stuff to finish, new job stuff to think about, last week of the school holidays, conference abstract due tomorrow, and going to Dunedin early tomorrow for the bioethics conference (so packing now).

However, still time to note that Dark Horse are finally going to release their next Firefly/Serenity comic book mini-series. Excellent, I can’t wait. See Dark Horse Comics > Profile > Serenity: Better Days #1 (of 3).

I’m the only one in my household without a dedicated lunchbox. These look so cool that my situation could soon be a thing of the past.

Dark Horse Comics : Serenity Lunch Box
Dark Horse Comics : Serenity Lunch Box: Fruity Oaty Bar

Now, if only I could get one of these to go with it.

A couple of interesting articles from Science about new stem cell research to file away under the bioethics category.

• Researchers Derive Stem Cells From Monkeys — Finkel 2007 (619): 1 — ScienceNOW
• Spare the Embryo, Save the Stem Cell — Finkel 2007 (619): 3 — ScienceNOW