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From the Publisher: Finally, the war between science and religion is over. The winner? All of us. With supporters from an incredibly wide spectrum of backgrounds and beliefs, including five Nobel laureates, Thank God for Evolution! builds bridges, provides guidance, and restores realistic hope for humanity and the body of life as a whole. A movement has been growing over the past few decades that takes our common creation story-the epic of cosmic, biological, and human evolution revealed by science-as the basis for a meaningful view of our place in the universe. Reverend Michael Dowd, America's evolutionary evangelist, is at the forefront of this movement. This well informed, thoroughly researched, and inspired book proclaims a gospel billions of years old. Thank God for Evolution! presents in a lively and accessible manner the reasons why it is now possible to view evolution as a divine process; how current science shows that evolution is not meaningless blind chance; practical methods for using evolutionary insights to achieve greater personal fulfillment and thriving relationships; and how aligning with evolutionary trends can guide activists and others hoping to make our world a better place. As a Christian minister, Dowd especially addresses the concerns that Christians have about evolution, but this book contains insights that will appeal to people of all faiths and of no faith. Fun and uplifting, Thank God for Evolution! goes beyond the current debate to offer up a whole new way of thinking about science, religion, and the meaning and purpose of our lives.… (more)
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After an inspiring start, all his talk about ‘Universal Reality’ and ‘The Great Radiance’ starts to wear thin. The book gets overloaded with religious terms that are jammed inside inverted commas. Dowd ostensibly discusses "Original Sin" but really he's just talking about how we inherited certain instincts from our lizard and monkey ancestors. He'll wax lyrical about being "in Christ" but really he's talking about something he calls 'living in evolutionary integrity'. All useful and instructive, but not when the book's pitch is that there are ways to be Christian and accept evolution at the same time.
It begins to feel disingenuous because he's not showing a way for Christians to accept evolution at all. His purported reconciliation comes at the expense of every thread of traditional belief. If you boil it right down he's basically saying, "God does not exist and the Bible is pure myth, but hey, we all like the tradition so let's keep using Christian terminology. Let's call the Universe 'God' and let's talk about trusting evolution as 'having faith'. Let's admire Christ's humility, apply it to evolution and say that we are being 'Christ-like'. There's nothing spiritual going on here at all, all we're doing is re-labeling stuff. Feels great, and we can still pretend we're Christians."
In the opening sections of the book I was genuinely excited. Here was someone with a fresh approach to reconciling faith with evolution. I started to plan how I might get some of my Christian friends to read it. By the end though, his references to "God", "Christ-like", "Satan", "Sin" etc seemed a bit pointless. Dude, it's a spade. At the end of the day it's still a spade. Calling it "Christ" changes nothing except the label.
It's a shame because Dowd starts off so strongly with his passion for the science. I wonder if he's trying to do too much in one book. There's a lot of good stuff in here. But ultimately it is too long, too flaky and I finished up disappointed.
The bedrock of these belief systems are based on their faith’s scripture. This scripture whether it’s the Torah, Talmud, Old and New Testaments, the Koran, or Indian holy books were written thousands of years ago. They don’t reflect contemporary times. They aren’t scientific. Many of the stories are myths and are grounded in the revelations of prophets. Dowd argues why should only these works be holy and used as guideposts for these religions while scientific knowledge is pushed aside? That’s why he’s advocating a synthesis of religion and science to correct this misconception.
Dowd sees scripture as “night language” and science “day language.” The former is subjective and the latter is objective. He writes that the originators of the scriptures who lived thousands of years ago would not be knowledgeable of the scientific realities that people know today. Dowd explains that scientific developments are based on evolution that he feels should also be considered scripture – the modern day revelation of God. To him this revelation is ongoing it has never stopped, but has taken on a new form.
Dowd, an evolutionary theist doesn’t consider the scriptures of the past as being new in any sense. He recognizes that it is still relevant in telling us many things about life. But because they were formulated ages ago they don’t speak correctly about our present circumstances, but only science could. So when believers look at the New Testament as the gospel of good news they are mistaken. According to Dowd the new understanding about life isn’t only found in ancient texts but in all scientific discoveries that’s the bedrock of truth. To Dowd truth is God’s language. And science is mankind’s best source of Reality.