Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Michael Dowd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Since 2002, ordained United Church of Christ minister Dowd and his wife, science writer Connie Barlow, have traveled the country celebrating evolution as a grand epic story with a host of psychological and moral implications for shaping contemporary life. As narrator, Dowd projects an earnest next-door neighbor teaching style that earns a measure of patience and forgiveness when he undertakes divergent metaphors and analogies that may leave listeners scratching their heads at times. Dowds talking points offer a potpourri of scientific and theological insights that remain generally engaging, though not necessarily stirring. He reaches the peak of his effectiveness when he provides specific calls to actions for his audience to meld flat-Earth Christianity and evolutionary Christianity in both their personal problem-solving and in larger global challenges. These nuggets make the lengthy journey worthwhile, at least for those in the fields of science and religion wanting to foster new areas for dialogue beyond the current culture wars. A Viking hardcover. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Dowd presents evolution as a sacred epic of emerging complexity."
-The New York Times

"Dowd masterfully unites rationality and spirituality in a world view that celebrates the mysteries of existence... A powerful book!"
-Craig Mello, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Plume; Edition Unstated edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452295343
• ASIN: B002PJ4FU0
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,017,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Dowd (b. 1958) has been called "America's Evolutionary Evangelist." His mission is to convey an inspiring "deep-time" understanding of our place in the Universe, based entirely on the evidential resources of mainstream science. Since 2001 he has been living on the road with his science writer wife, Connie Barlow, bringing this message to religious and secular audiences across the spectrum. Visit his websites and blog: thankgodforevolution dot com and MichaelDowd dot org.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 97 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A most remarkable book October 31, 2007

By Dennis Littrell HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Whether Michael Dowd will succeed in reconciling the ways of the ancient religions to the facts of postmodern science, and in doing so, transform our lives by ending the dangerous contention existing between and among the various claims to "the way, the truth, and the life," remains to be seen. He is aiming for nothing less than the complete consilience of science and religion, a merging that, if successful, will be of inestimable value to humankind. I greatly admire the wisdom and intelligence and learning that Dowd brings to this very difficult task. I am amazed at his creativity and his temerity. His idea reminds me of something relatively simple, yet earth-shaking, something that might come from an Einstein or a Gandhi. I am not exaggerating.

The idea is this: we can accept as public truth and as "daytime" knowledge the facts about our world and ourselves as revealed through physics, cosmology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, geology, etc., while maintaining our faith in our religious heritage. We can still believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and be guided by the wisdom in the Bible while knowing that the earth really is four and a half billion years old and that, yes, we did indeed evolve from a long extinct ape-like creature.

It might be that Dowd is inventing a discipline. Call it Evolutionary Theology. Because we are educated we know that evolution is a fact; and because we believe in a God who cares and is intimately involved in this world, we therefore must see evolution as God's way of working in this world. But can the denotative words of the Bible be reconciled with such an understanding?... Dowd's way around this conundrum is to understand that the Bible, inspired by God, was written in a way comprehendible to the people at the time, using words and images and ideas consistent with their world view. To write in the way of the modern world with the modern understanding would be unintelligible to those people and counterproductive.

This is a nice dodge (if I may) with some plausibility. I am satisfied with just saying that where the Bible is denotatively wrong, it is agreeable to interpret it symbolically. Dowd shies away from this direct approach because it would not help him with his consilience since evangelicals and others who believe in the literal truth of the Bible are sworn enemies of symbolic interpretations.

Dowd wants to celebrate evolution as our "cherished creation story." (p. 37) He sees facts as "God's native tongue." (p. 68) He makes a distinction between the "day language" of fact and the "night language" of meaning, between public revelation and private revelation, between reason and reverence (see especially p. 104). In this way differing utterances and experiences can be reconciled. I was especially enthralled because a friend of mine had the most intense dreams and visions in which she saw truths about the "other side" that she wanted so much for us all to accept. My way of accepting her views without compromising my own beliefs and experiences, was to refer to "public truths" and "private truths." No one can deny your experience. It is "true," but it is a private truth. Of course some people want more than that. They want their truth to be the public truth, and therein lies a problem of immense force: think of the differences between Christianity and Islam, between both of them and, say, Buddhism.

Dowd defines God as "the Ultimate Whole of Reality" (p. 77) and a wonderful definition it is! How tiny, how petty, how insignificant and sadly anthropomorphic seem the lesser gods! Dowd writes, "God cannot be limited to the world we humans can sense, measure, and comprehend: Ultimate Reality transcends and includes all that we can possibly know, experience, and even imagine." (p. 109) He goes on to reveal that the God he believes in is like the God of the Vedas, Ineffable and indescribable: "Any 'God' that can be believed in or not believed in is a trivialized notion of the divine." (p. 109)

Dowd calls the Big Bang of cosmology the "Great Radiance," and again what a way with words and ideas he has. He involves us all personally with the cosmic act of creation by reminding us that we are star dust, that we are the universe becoming conscious of itself. This identification with all of creation is a marvelous thing. Instead of narrowing identifying with only our group or nation or religion how much better it is to identify with the entire cosmos. There is great sense of freedom and wonder in doing so, and how petty seem these worldly conflicts when measured against the stars.

One of Dowd's most compelling and wondrous ideas is to recognize that the entire universe is evolving. He writes, quoting physicist Brian Swimme, "Earth, once molten rock, now sings opera." (p. 121) And we are an integral part of that evolution. Instead of being alone in a vast, uncaring, mindless universe, we are "a mode of being...an expression of the Universe. We didn't come into the world; we grew out from it, like a peach grows out of a peach tree." (pp. 120-121)

In short, what Michael Dowd has done in this remarkable book is to reconcile science with the tenets of the ancient religions, especially the Christianity he was born into. In a sense this a distinction between what he calls "flat-earth" Christianity and "evolutionary" Christianity. Throughout Dowd demonstrates a strikingly thorough understanding of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience, not to mention cosmology and even some physics. I say "strikingly" because it is so rare for someone formally trained in theology to have such a broad education. After this book achieves the kind of currency I expect it to achieve, perhaps the clergy will be respected (as they once were) as truly knowledgeable people. Read more ›

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars mind-expanding, heart-opening, grace-giving November 1, 2007

By Catherine G. Russell

Format:Hardcover

Michael Dowd draws on the wisdom of religion and the revelations of science to make sense of the world in a way that is a gift to me. I have heard Michael Dowd speak several times, and am thrilled that he has put these ideas into writing. I have found the integration of evolution and religion to be the most mind-expanding, heart-opening, grace-giving idea I have ever experienced. At the risk of sounding corny, I am just plain effusive about improvements in my life that have happened as a result of understanding the ideas presented in "Thank God For Evolution!" Since reconciling evolution with religion, all the important relationships in my life have improved. I experience more joy in my life and have more moments of grace than ever. I also have a realistic and grounded hope that gives me courage to meet the social and ecological challenges facing our society and the Earth. Through this new understanding of evolution that Dowd presents, religion finally makes sense. For years, as a molecular biologist who studied evolution, I "believed" that evolution meant there was no God and worse, that the universe was unfriendly. A closer examination of growing amounts of evidence helped me discover that the universe is a friendly place. What scientists of all disciplines (and all faith traditions) are revealing about evolution is convincing me more and more that the universe is on a trajectory toward greater complexity, cooperation and consciousness. Michael Dowd beautifully articulates this in "Thank God for Evolution!"
Another of my favorite things about Dowd's teachings is how he finds universal spiritual/evolutionary impulses in specific Christian metaphors.... This gives me the double blessing of having far greater appreciation for my own Christian roots, but also the appreciation to know that other religions have their own specific symbols that represent the same universal truth.
I like the "evolutionary integrity practices" that Dowd includes in his book. In the light of evolutionary science, some spiritual practices that once seemed strange now make sense. For example, I used to think speaking in tongues was weird. After reading Dowd's evolutionary explanation for how this practice quiets the mind, I thought I would experiment. So I just let myself speak in random syllables (nobody was around). Sure enough! The chatter in my brain stopped, replaced by interesting sounds, followed by laughter and a useful change in perspective. Read more ›

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God for this book! October 29, 2007

By Paul C. West

Format:Hardcover

As a recovering Biblical literalist who was raised to "believe" radical religious views that are completely out of sync with reality, I was overjoyed to discover a book that finally shares what I have known in my heart and head since I was a child, namely that everything is sacred. Everything is divine. All land is holy land. All water is holy water. My existential angst is finally over. This beautiful book turns religion right-side up, reality inside out and gives a new way to EXPERIENCE rather than just EXPLAIN God. The insights it shares breath new life into old scriptures by helping to reveal religious meaning that just makes sense in light of modern revelations about reality. We literally are the first life form we know of that has a choice in its own evolution. If that isn't a second coming idea that lifts humanity to the right hand of God, then I don't know what is. I strongly recommend this book to anyone feeling "left behind" by the end-of-times doom-and-gloomers. All of a sudden you'll see how challenges like global warming are just the evolutionary nudge we need right now to evolve into a species that truly and deeply cares for ourselves, each other and our precious planet, the only known one of its kind. Welcome to Heaven!

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ways this book will make a really big difference October 28, 2007

By Tom Atlee

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is not only a fascinating read, but is also extremely important.

I should, as a matter of full disclosure, say that I have been working with (not for) the author for three years, which I don't see as a conflict of interest to recommend this book. I'm working with Michael Dowd because I believe in the profound importance of what he and his book are saying. I think his book is a gift to the world -- particularly to future generations -- and so it is a gift to recommend it. Here's why:

I see at least 3 layers of importance for Thank God for Evolution!...

1. At its surface layer it is a Christian book brilliantly weaving Christianity and modern evolutionary understandings into a single fabric of celebration, integrity, and universal co-creativity. Although I don't think of myself as Christian, the vast majority of Americans are Christians, and I expect the vast majority of them will find Dowd's perspective inspiring and useful. It will deepen and ground their ability to live the benign spirit of their faith while shaking loose from some of its worst downside. Given what's been going on lately, this will greatly benefit America, other "Christian nations", and the rest of the world.

2. There is a war raging between religion and science. It has been going on since Copernicus. It settled down to a quiet roar during the industrial era when both agreed to a sort of "separate but equal" dynamic tension. But with the recent growth of deep collective uneasiness, with recent abuses in both religious and secular realms, and after recent cynical efforts to merge religion and politics for partisan gain, the suppressed tensions are once again boiling over.... Both sides have initiated clever, passionate, virulent attacks of all kinds in many forums -- in education, media, politics, and courtrooms. As our already tenuous social fabric tears along these lines, I know of no one who has created a more brilliant resolution to that war than Dowd. As with any war, there will be extremist holdouts on both sides, but Dowd has created such a deeply satisfying peace plan, one that validates both sides and creates a climate in which the vast majority of partisans can lay down their weapons and get on with the work of enhancing their shared humanity. Which brings me to the final importance of this book, and the real reason why I'm working with Dowd.

3. We face extinction. And we are pushing much of life on earth into extinction. Extinction is an evolutionary issue. We are heading for an evolutionary train wreck of our own making.

Species and civilizations go extinct when they and their ways no longer "fit" the conditions in which they live. 20th and 21st century culture, economics, industry, politics, media, education, religion, and more, were not designed for our collective survival (i.e., sustainability) but for material growth and (increasingly concentrated) power. We don't "fit" and we are about to take ourselves out of the evolutionary game. ("Survival of the fittest", incidentally, has been misconstrued as being primarily about strength, competitiveness, and power. But it turns out that awareness, co-operation, adaptability, and alignment of self-interest with the well-being of the whole are even more important, especially at this stage.)

Our challenge is to become more collectively conscious and choiceful. Dowd's work is part of a larger effort to free us from evolutionary determinism, to wake us up so we can see clearly and choose, so that we become conscious celebrants and choiceful agents in the evolutionary Story in which we are inevitable participants. We can see everything that is happening to us, and everything we are doing, as part of our current evolutionary chapter, and we can live it all much more consciously -- especially by wisely transforming our cultures and social systems which have such profound impact on the world.

This is only secondarily a challenge to our intelligence. It is primarily a matter of spirit. Who do we think we are? What do we think we are doing here? How do we relate to the world? What really matters? Dowd offers radically new, incredibly deep new answers to these, embedded in an inspiring 13.7 billion year Story in which we come alive as never before. Alive enough that we just might meet the challenges we face and come out the other end renewed, having evolved into new people and a new civilization of richly diverse, vibrantly alive cultures that work, that "fit" the world -- a world which is suddenly better for our being here.

As I wrote in my original endorsement of this book, "Thank God for Evolution! sweeps us into a freshly minted universe, in which both evolution and religion are transformed, enlivened, and blessed in ways they cannot be when warring against each other. They both come out shining--and profoundly relevant together, not only in the world we live in, but in the very different world that is just around the corner. Michael Dowd treats us to an alluring, prophetic glimpse of something very positive that is suddenly very possible. This is a truly original book at the near edge of a deeply hopeful future." Read more ›