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

February 22, 2009 in Darwin, Science, Technology & Religion by admin | No comments

Bob White - Lecture and Symposium - Leaflet - 2.jpg
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

A couple of science-religion links

January 1, 2009 in Darwin, Science, Technology & Religion by admin | No comments

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).

Disappointed…

July 12, 2008 in Comics, Firefly, Science Fiction, Transhumanism by admin | 2 comments

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.

15190 1346913470Transhuman02 Cover

See also:

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

SBL - Days 2-5

July 11, 2008 in Faith & Religion, Firefly, Research by admin | No comments

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.

Firefly Study Series

May 14, 2008 in Faith & Religion, Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | 1 comment

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:

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

Serenity: Better Days

April 13, 2008 in Comics, Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | 1 comment

Serenity-BetterdaysFor 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!

Serenity: Better Days

January 31, 2008 in Comics, Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | No comments

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).

Shiny!

October 20, 2007 in Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | No comments

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.

New stem cell articles

June 20, 2007 in Bioethics/Biotech by admin

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

How many sleeps to go?

April 23, 2007 in Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | No comments

B5Movie-1A page has appeared on Amazon for the first installment of the new direct-to-DVD Babylon 5 series: Amazon.com: Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales. So, it should be here sooner rather than later (at least for Region 1 release). Will it stand up to watching in the post-Firefly universe though?

More information over at:

Update

Firefly & Serenity study resources

April 12, 2007 in Faith & Religion, Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | No comments

Damaris have released some study resources for Firefly to go with the Serenity resource,

See Culture Watch - Firefly and Culture Watch - Serenity.

Shiny

December 8, 2006 in Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | 3 comments

Wired News: Firefly Reborn as Online Universe.

I’ve tended to avoid MMORPGs, but this one might be irresistible.

Serenity/Firefly rumours

June 7, 2006 in Comics, Firefly, Science Fiction by admin

Looks like the new Serenity comic book series from Dark Horse will be called “Better Days”, and will be set before the Serenity movie. It will explore some of the unresolved plots from Firefly and will be written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews (who did the first series). Can’t wait.

Firefly (& Buffy) come to iTunes

May 16, 2006 in Firefly, Science Fiction, iPod by admin | 1 comment

Firefly and Buffy are now in the iTunes store (well, at least for the US).

Joss Whedon’s Firefly Season 2?

May 9, 2006 in Firefly, Science Fiction by admin

Well, it’d be interesting if they get it going, but I imagine it’d have US-only stamped on the delivery mechanisms. See Joss Whedon’s Firefly Season 2.

Can’t take the sky away from me

February 8, 2006 in Firefly, Science Fiction by admin | 5 comments

Serenity-Dvd-FrontIt’s Serenity Day!

The Serenity was released today in NZ (DVD Region 4). A display stand at the door of the local Whitcoull’s had a pile on display with the sign “Get your free gift too.” And so I’m now the excited owner of the “Limited Edition” double-disc edition and I have a Serenity mouse pad to complete my desk. A Serenity poster would be nice for the office too but I haven’t seen any for sale in NZ.

Serenity-Dvd-Slip-CaseAnyway, I’m looking forward to enjoying the movie again and I’ll actually be interested in the extra features on the DVD this time - unlike many other DVDs I have. (The other exception to this rule is the “I, Robot” double disc set that has some quite good documentary stuff on the second disk - a veritable who’s who from my thesis bibliography.)

At some point I’ll have to watch all the Firefly episodes, read the comics and watch the movie in a marathon to get that real fan boy experience. :-)

BTW - Steve has a review here. Written from the point of an “outsider” but still contains many good points. See EmergentKiwi: Serenity Film Review.

Doctor Who and other “thinking” books

November 23, 2005 in Faith & Religion, Firefly, Science Fiction by admin

I’ve been a big fan of Doctor Who ever since I learnt to hide behind the couch and I really enjoyed the recently rebooted series. So when I saw that Damaris have just published Back In Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who I was intrigued. The sample text they have online looks like it has possibilities so I’ll add it to the following list of books to acquire at some time:

Any suggestions to add for Star Trek, Stargate and others gratefully received. (See also: Greenflame: Battlestar memories and Greenflame: On the bookshelf)

Serenity - Another advanced screening

October 20, 2005 in Firefly, General, Science Fiction by admin

There’s another advanced screening of Serenity on this Sunday at Village Cinemas on Queen Street (Auckland). Tie in with the Pulp Culture festival also on at the Aotea Centre.

See: Serenity - Special Advanced Screening - 23 Oct.

Also, Serenity interviews here and the River Tam viral marketing campaign for Serenity here.

They aim to misbehave

October 14, 2005 in Comics, Firefly, General by admin

You can see the first 11 minutes of Serenity as an video stream here.

Serenity reviews

October 2, 2005 in Firefly, General, Science Fiction by admin

With Serenity officially out now in the wider world the reviews are out too. See:

Serenity last night

September 20, 2005 in Firefly, General, Science Fiction by admin

Went to the cinema, saw the film, loved it. For the uninitiated - watch all the Firefly episodes in the order on the DVD set, read the comics, go to Serenity. (Repeat)

So much for it being a relatively unknown film. It sold out the Megascreen at the Village on Queen (400+ seats) and we had to queue for ages to get in (some tickets were up for sale on TradeMe too). I can’t remember the last time I queued to get into a film. The clientele looked decidedly geeky (so we fitted right in, though we didn’t go as far as wearing suits and blue gloves like some!). Felt like I was back in a computer science department with some of my old colleagues. A good night out.

Serenity tonight

September 19, 2005 in Comics, Firefly, General, Science Fiction by admin | 3 comments

Off to see the pre-release screening of Serenity tonight in town. After a day of cold, wet rain, hail and strong winds (& snow in Christchurch) it’s a nice way to end the day - especially as I’m going with a couple of other enthusiasts. Managed to get the first two of the comics that bridge the gap between TV and movie - was hoping the last would be in today in the reorder but no such luck. The comics capture the atmosphere of the show really well, as well as the style of dialogue.

The Ballad of Serenity (Firefly theme)

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me

Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain’t coming back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from me

There’s no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can’t take the sky from me

(MP3 version available here)

Serenity-200