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Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Dowd
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 26360
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0670020451
Dewey Decimal Number: 261.55
EAN: 9780670020454
Publication Date: June 19, 2008
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 The Creatheist Treatise -- A Philosophy of Reasonable Faith November 2, 2007
Cynthia Sue Larson (San Francisco bay area, CA USA)
43 out of 55 found this review helpful
Throughout much of history there has seemingly been a battle between the powers of reason and those of faith... between people striving to analytically comprehend the world through math and science, and those who deemed some things to be eternally beyond the reaches of man's ability to ever fully intellectually understand. At this juncture in time as world populations near the brink of unsustainability on planet Earth the thought-provoking book, THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION!, presents us with a means for seeing a way to embracing a philosophy that encompasses the strengths of reason and faith... a kind of reasonable faith. Author Michael Dowd's whimsical writing style brings what might otherwise have become a weighty soporific tome into a playful and positive guidebook to "creatheism," a term coined by the author and his wife to embody their meta-religious scientific worldview which sees the whole as being creative in a nested, emergent sense... with humanity playing an integral and increasingly conscious part in the creative process, as there are many legitimate ways to interpret and speak about ultimate reality. This viewpoint is much more than mere pantheism, as "God" is a holy name for ultimate reality -- the all-encompassing wholeness -- which transcends all other realities.
While much of THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION! is devoted to exploring ways of seeing a unity between science and faith, specifically Christian faith, it also provides numerous techniques one can use for attaining a heightened sense of spiritual connection and compassion. THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION! is a must-read for scientists wishing to answer the question, "But what do you BELIEVE?!" as well as for all spiritual people wishing to find a better way to describe how they can consider themselves both analytical and spiritual at the same time. There need be no conflict between these two, as numerous Nobel prize winning scientists assert, and as Michael Dowd encourages each of us to explore on our own.
I give THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION! my highest recommendation, with hopes that everyone interested in either science or spirituality will read it in order to open a dialogue and discussion about ways we can solve problems facing all of us with regard to crises in faith, environmental issues, and social concerns. Finding a way to use all of our heart, all of our mind, and both a sense of faith and a sense of reason will clearly bring us the most complete solutions, and THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION! is definitely a key part of unifying the seemingly divisive elements into a cohesive whole.
Useful Bridge, Provokes Reflection October 28, 2007
Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States)
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
It was my good fortune to receive a copy of this book in galley form, and then again when published, because the author was scheduled to speak at one of my conferences. Having read a number of books on religion in politics (bad) and religion in diplomacy (good), as well as a number of books on science in isolation (bad) and science in relation to the humanities (good), I was most intrigued by this author's daring--and ultimately successful--endeavor to combine the accuracy of a scientific textbook with the inspiration of religious faith and gospel (good).
Yes, for some this may be a stretch, and some of it may annoy those who like their religion dressed in dogma and ritual and "no humor allowed," but on balance I found this book totally worthwile. See others I recommend along these lines at the end of this review.
The author does not address, nor does he need to, the extremes of religion or of the politicization of science. Instead, he reconciles perspectives that have been allowed to claim they are in contradiction when in fact they are not. He builds bridges and makes important distinctions, such as between private and public revelation, facts as God's native tongue, and contrasting faith-based views on evolution.
The book is full of quotes from many of the most respected evolutionary thinkers of all time - both living and dead--as well as dozens of personal anecdotes. There is a separate list of Highlighted Stories, just after the Table of Contents.
Drawing on evolutionary brain science and evolutionary psychology, the author reframes and "makes real" traditional Christian concepts such as "Original Sin" and "The Fall", but does so in a way that anyone, regardless of their religious or philosophical worldview, can embrace and benefit from. I am reminded of Conversations with God in that sense.
Part IV: "Evolutionary Spirituality" is a collection of exercises, practices, and "self-help" and "relationship-help" tools. Although I have not seen any other "self-help" books, this section struck me as provocative (of reflection) and therefore helpful to anyone.
Overall the author offers us all a "big picture" understanding of life's most important and persistent questions such as: "Where do we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here? How are we to live?"
The bottom line: this book addresses concerns many Christians have about evolution, yet also communicates a universal "gospel" (good news message) that will speak to people of all religious traditions, and even those hostile to religion.
From now on, no discussion of how science and religion or evolution and creation relate can ignore this book. The index is excellent, as are the concluding offerings, a "Who's Who" section and a Resources section.
The Complete Conversations with God (Boxed Set)
The Celestine Prophecy
Left Hand of God, The: Healing America's Political and Spiritual Crisis
Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik
Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
To Govern Evolution: Further Adventures of the Political Animal
A most remarkable book October 31, 2007
Dennis Littrell (SoCal)
19 out of 24 found this review helpful
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.
Reconciling Science and Religion January 5, 2008
Mick (Eastern Seaboard)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
The authors live in a van, as itinerant storytellers of what they call The Great Story. Michael Dowd has got to be one of the most energetic people I know. I asked him to write this book in 1989, no, I begged, pleaded, kowtowed, and did everything else I could think of to convince him to write it. Is it perfect? No. What book is? I was raised by people who saw no conflict between science and religion, and were equally fascinated by both. The naysayer reviews remind me of the scientific sniping at popularizations of Quantum Mechanics. I read every one of those popularizations I can find, they are fascinating. If you don't like the popularizations, then do a better job yourself. I helped edit this book, at no charge [they didn't accept all of my recommendations, though], and I don't think any of the editors were paid, the authors don't make a lot. They do what they do out of their hearts. It is time to discharge the polarized conflict between religion and science, and to recognize that from a larger perspective, one presented in this book, there never was a conflict at all. Native American elders note that humans survive through cooperation, not via competition. Any book that promotes cooperation, understanding, and communication is also a book that promotes healing. I donated a copy of this book to the University I graduated from, I liked it that much. The authors have turned crowds of angry fundamentalists, both religious and scientific, with their concordances or scientific references at half cock, into crowds that found the larger perspective very interesting. This book is also about restoring meaning to life, and thus about healing and peacemaking. Modern society is so fragmented, and has so many problems as a result. Healing that fragmentation is right livelihood. These guys do so, in a fascinating way. I'm sure there are errors in the book. So what? The half life of a medical school education is about 4 years, that is, half of what doctors learn in school is obsolete in 4 years. Those who criticize it seem to either have an agenda, and or taking items out of context. A bridge has supports on both sides, which means this book has to straddle both science and religion. Conflict, like light, in Quantum Mechanics, exists because people choose to see it. Newtonian physics was a great advance, in its day. Newer discoveries simply expand the envelope. This book is a similar expansion, which embraces both science and religion. My parents raised me to think this way, and I'm glad to see these ideas in print.
Is the religion versus science debate FINALLY over?? Can theists and atheists be friends??? November 1, 2007
Stephen Pletko (London, Ontario, Canada)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
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"CREATHEISM [pronounced "cree-uh-theism" or "cree-atheism"]: a concept introduced in the early 21ST century, grounded in a empirical [that is, based on experiment and observation] understanding of the nested [that is, a series of similar things, each fitting within the one next larger] emergent nature of divine creativity. For creatheists `God' is a holy name for Ultimate Reality--the all-encompassing Wholeness--that which includes yet transcends all other realities. Creatheism regards Nature as a revelation or expression of the divine--particularly in its EMERGENT CREATIVITY. Creatheism understands humanity as a self-reflective aspect of Creation that allows the Wholeness of Reality, seen and unseen, manifest and [not manifest]--i.e., God--to be honored in conscious awareness and to guide our own deliberate manifestations of that divine creativity."
The above definition is found in this amazing, well-written, revealing book (released Nov. 1, 2007) authored by The Reverend Michael Dowd "one of the most inspiring speakers in America today."
This book resolutely bridges the gap between religion and science, resulting in the doctrine or movement defined above called Creatheism. Who will Creatheism appeal too? ANSWER: Anyone (theists, atheists, agnostics, etc.). WHY? Since it's based on what we know (through science), NOT what we believe.
The religious aspect of this book is superbly handled by Dowd (who has an impressive array of credentials) with the science aspects of this book being capably detailed by his present wife, the "acclaimed science writer" Connie Barlow (who did not want to be listed as coauthor). The final book is an effective synthesis of such disciplines as evolutionary psychology, ecology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, cosmology, and theology. What results from this synthesis? Answer: A new, exciting, humanistic field called evolutionary spirituality.
I have read similar recent books on this subject by scientists who profess to be believers. What these authors do is either (1) attempt to alter scientific facts or (2) ask the reader just to believe in the supernatural. Dowd's book does neither. He respects the intelligence of the reader.
A feature of this book is that it contains a wealth of quotations. My two favorite quotations are as follows:
(1) "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true...science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger...is as good as dead...This...is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of devoutly religious [people]." (Albert Einstein)
(2) "Evolution is [Charles] Darwin's great gift to theology." (John Haught)
Most people know who Einstein is. But who's John Haught? Answer: renowned Roman Catholic theologian. Author of "Deeper than Darwin," "God After Darwin," and "101 Questions on God and Evolution." Where did I find this information?
I found this information in a section located at the back of the book entitled "Who's Who." It lists names (I counted over 175 names!!) and briefly states who they are. (Yes, Einstein is listed.) These people are either quoted or mentioned in the main narrative of the book. I recommend that you photocopy this section instead of constantly flipping back to the book's end.
Finally, another feature of this book is that it contains stories (highlighted on a gray background). I counted almost 55 of them!! These stories are used by Dowd to make a point. My two favorites are entitled:
(1) Evolution: Theory and Fact
(2) "Finally, a God that makes sense!"
In conclusion, this is a unique book that may end the heated debate between science and religion. I leave you with Dowd's final paragraph in his acknowledgements section:
"Finally, I acknowledge the contributions of generation upon generation of scientists and evolutionary thinkers. I'm mostly an evangelist...[and] a storyteller. The real saints in this movement are those who labor in their labs or in the field, often without the public recognition they so rightfully deserve."
(first published 2007; author's promises; prologue; introduction; 5 parts or 18 chapters; conclusion; epilogue; main narrative 325 pages; 2 appendices; invitation; acknowledgements; resources; online resources; who's who; index; about the author)
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