Michael Dowd’s Thank God for Evolution is rather inspirational and informative. It addresses aspects of our religious lives that many don’t normally think about. It’s a basic fact that many of those who are religious are that way based on tradition. They are following in the footsteps of their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. That’s how they become Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Fundamentalists and the like. Some might even be believers in other faith traditions like Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shintoism or any other of the many indigenous sects worldwide.
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 Quran, 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. ( )

Few issues have revealed deeper divisions in our society than the debate between creationism and evolution, between religion and science. Yet from the fray, Reverend Michael Dowd has emerged as a reconciler, finding faith strengthened by the power of reason.

With evidence from contemporary astrophysics, geology, biology, anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, Thank God for Evolution lays out a compelling argument for how religion and science can be mutually enriching forces in our lives.

Praised by Nobel laureates in the scientific community and religious leaders alike, Thank God for Evolution will expand the horizon of what is possible for self, for relationships, and for our world.

I read this because the author is scheduled to speak locally, and an acquaintance led a book discussion.

The author was “born again” in his late teens and rejected evolution as a package deal, then attended an evangelical university where he discovered that evolution is accepted by actual Christians. Fast forward, apparently some decades, he has married and raised children and divorced and meets an atheist science journalist at a conference. They marry, decide to evangelize evolution together, and travel the country with a van decal of a Jesus fish kissing a Darwin fish. This summarizes the first few pages of the prologue, and next is the introduction: ”Religious believers can hardly be expected to embrace evolution if the only version they’ve been exposed to portrays the processes at work as merely competitive and pointless, even cruel, and thus godless. Is it an wonder that many of the conservative side of the theological spectrum find such a view repulsive, and that many on the liberal side accept evolution begrudgingly?” This is page 7, and this is where the author lost me, because he is assuming a perspective of people from another planet. I get that countering is necessary, with nearly 50% of the US population rejecting evolution, but I became doubtful of the remaining 360 pages. I had hoped for more explanation of this perspective (what are people trying to hang onto?), not an assumption of its existence. I confess that I skimmed at times.

The gist is a conversion of evolution from blind chance into meaningful story, and it begins with a succinct description of natural selection. Which has been around for, oh, 150 years or so, and has been repeatedly deliberately dishonestly distorted. Grrr. OK, calm down, going with the flow here... The gist is optimism, evolution as Good News, the Great Story that includes all other stories. Evolution does not destroy God, it enhances God. God did not stop revealing truth 2000 years ago. All traditional religions must move away from literal interpretation, idol worship, of scripture tied to time and place, toward the “sacred commentary” of theories, which must submit to empirical facts, the revelation of God. The Universe can be trusted to unfold with increasing diversity and complexity and awareness. The Universe is creativity, a process of synergy and strife and challenges. In a Universe of emergent nested interdependent holons, God is the encompassing One, immanent not transcendent. Science is the “day language” of events and reason and public objectivity. Religion is the “night language” of meaning and reverence and private subjectivity. Both atheism and theism are embraced in the term “creatheism”. So I’m fine with this, elements of Teilhard de Chardin and Ken Wilber and panentheism and process philosophy, all of which make appearances in the book. Continuing on to concepts of Christianity, “the fall” and “original sin” and “personal salvation” are recast in terms of the quadrune brain, lizard and mammal and primate and human, in a manner that I found a bit too cutesy, but the author’s audience often includes children. I can imagine him as charismatic preacher, and am curious to see him in person.

Why does this matter? A chapter on sustainability brings it down to earth.

So I wanted a different book, and cannot fairly criticize the author for not providing it. I respect what he is aiming to do, and he does it well.

(read 6 Dec 2012)

I whole-heartedly recommend the first part of this book which is overflowing with Dowd’s infectious enthusiasm for his subject. His subject is, blatantly and proudly, evolution. If only he’d stayed clear of religion, if only he’d stuck to how amazing the universe is and focused on the lessons we can learn from contemplating evolution, it would be a magnificent book. Dowd offers inspiring ways to approach life with an evolutionary foundation. His concept of 'deep integrity' is rather cool. I'd wager that there's something for everyone in here and it’s certainly a book to provoke some good discussion ... but don’t believe the cover jacket’s hype about how Dowd has eloquently bridged the divide between faith and evolution. In fact, I'd dare to call it false advertising.

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. ( )

About the author: "Michael Dowd (b. 11-19-1958) is an American Progressive Christian minister, author, and eco-theologian known as an advocate of Big History, religious naturalism, sustainability, climate activism, and the epic of evolution. . . .'Thank God for Evolution'. . .was endorsed by six Nobel Prize-winning scientists." Source: www.wikipedia.org. About the book: Rev. Marlin Lavanhar, senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, said of this work, "Dowd has given us a bridge across one of the major chasms of our times--religion and evolution. His passion for both science and religion is contagious. Reading his book, one can see that the discourse itself has just evolved to a whole new level!" This book includes lists of resources print and online, a list of Who's Who for sources and quotations and is well indexed.