Posted on 01/12/2008 7:45:31 PM PST by trumandogz
The Rev. Michael Dowd gave up a permanent home to travel the country spreading his gospel in the hope of reconciling disparate beliefs. But the former pastor's gospel may shock many Christians.
Dowd preaches "evolution theology," a view that promotes evolutionary science and God as the ultimate reality. In Dowd's mind, you can have Darwin and the divine.
Dowd is so committed to spreading his message that he offers his book — "Thank God for Evolution! How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World" — as a free download on his Web site.
The presentations that he and his wife give at churches and other venues are also free. But DVD and book sales help finance their ministry.
For more than five years, Dowd, 49, and his wife, Connie Barlow, a science writer, have traveled the country in a high-top van that they named Angel and asked audiences from many backgroundsto consider evolution theology.
Their work has drawn praise from Nobel Prize-winning scientists.
The couple will speak at 9:45 a.m., 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday at First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Ave.
"We don't try to show evangelicals or young earth creationists or intelligent design people that we're right and they're wrong," Dowd said. "Evolution gives me a bigger God, an undeniably real God."
Dowd believes that God's revelations didn't stop in biblical times but continued in the form of scientific discovery, a worldview that he thinks is important as public schools grapple with how to teach evolution, Americans choose a new president, and the world faces environmental threats.
"If somebody believes that Jesus, the cosmic janitor, is going to return on a cloud and clean up the mess we made, they're more likely to have a less responsible way of thinking about the future and handing on a healthy, sustainable world," Dowd said.
Dowd said that booking his talks at Unitarian churches is easier because of the denomination's liberal theology but that he wants to spend more time this year talking to evangelical Christians who either grudgingly accept evolution or aggressively try to dismiss it as incompatible with Scripture.
Dowd said he understands the fear of allowing science to trump faith because he was once a biblical literalist who believed that the Earth was 6,000 years old
Over the years, though, he said, a Passionist priest led him to find a more powerful narrative of God and discover a "God-glorifying, Christ-edifying view of evolution."
For more information on Dowd's work, go to www.thank
godforevolution.com.
Finally some common sense. Evolution and religion are not mutually exclusive. God’s great plan is evident all around us.
Lying for Darwin ping!
That’s what Yul Brynner said in “The King and I.” It’s kind of dualistic thinking. Something can’t be true over here and false over there.
To believe the basic doctrines of evolution, one must deny the literal interpretation of Genesis chapter one. You can’t have it both ways.
Preachers should be preaching the Word of God, not their own psuedo religion.
Idiocy.
NOT possible to be a biblical literalist and believe this earth is a mere 6,000 years old. So no surprise he would slip into evolution.
The Big Lie being taught in the disguise of religion.
I disagree, does God make anything imperfectly Marie2?
Genesis 1 is completely in step with Science, though not all science can claim to be in step with Faith.
Keep in mind, the first use of the term “Yom” for “day” occurs in Genesis 1, what would the reference point be for Yom to mean only 1 day?
If somebody believes that Jesus is not coming again, and that there will not be a new heaven and a new earth, they aren't really preaching Christianity.
So whatever it is he is "merging", it isn't Christianity.
But he's not the first person to assert that somehow believing that the world will come to an end means that Christians are looking to mess up the planet, even though there is no evidence of it.
On the other hand, if you believe in evolution, then it makes little sense to try to preserve the world for your offspring, because humanity will be replaced sooner or later anyway.
Odd how evolutionists never bother to talk about how humans will have to dissappear for their theory to make any sense. Maybe they are afraid that the truth will turn people off to their religion.
This is the first I’ve heard of this guy. Two of the best Freepers ever to grace this website, Alamo-girl and Betty Boop, wrote a good book on evolution. I wonder what their take is on this guy?
Don’t Let Science Get You Down, Timothy: A Light-hearted (but Deadly Serious) Dialogue on Science, Faith, and Culture (Paperback)
Creation/Evolution, 2008.
“The more things change, the more....”
I could never understand why some want to limit God’s power by forcing Him into human like creation processes. The fact that God set all the necessary conditions for the universe and life in the first Planck second makes Him all the more aw awesome.
His beliefs were halfbaked then, and halfbaked now.
No. Evolution and religion are synonymous. God’s great plan is found in Scripture and is neither common nor according to man’s sense.
Sounds like the Emerging Church’s heresy of “kingdom now”—man creating the kingdom here on earth, rather than Jesus coming on a cloud (like he said he would) and bringing his kingdom himself.
Check out this site: www.understandthetimes.org
Perhaps the most ridiculous statement you've ever made at this forum. Maybe I missed some.
Must be a temperature control problem ... global warming got to him.
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