Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution! How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, does a Q and A with Wired and gets a reasonably warm reception from the technology magazine with his view that "a holy understanding of evolution will usher the world's religions into their greatness in the 21st century."
Though how actual Evangelicals will feel about comments like...
creativity didn't exist at the beginning of time, making everything like a potter makes a pot, but exists through the universe in a nested sense. God, Goddess, Allah -- they're just proper names for that ultimate reality. God is a sacred proper name for 'largest nesting doll.' You may choose to call it by another name. Many people just call it the universe.
or
Evolution helps us understand the challenges of life. Why do we struggle with what we struggle with? Traditional religion says it's the Fall, it's original sin. But from an evolutionary theology perspective, original sin is a way of talking about what we call animal instincts.
Take testosterone: The more a person has, the more a person tends to take risks and think about sex. If people think they have sex on the brain because their great-great-grandmother ate an apple, or because they're fundamentally flawed, then they won't be able to live with integrity. Evolutionary psychology gives us a way of understanding our true nature. It makes it easier for us to live.
Making it "easier for us to live."
I wasn't aware that was the point behind Christianity.
Any type of Christianity.
As for "Rev" Dowd being a "former Evangelical minister" I think his bio at Wikipedia sheds a little light on that...
During the 1980s and 90s, Michael pastored three United Church of Christ congregations, worked with Unitarian Universalist, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, New Thought (???) and Evangelical leaders across America on environmental, peace, and justice issues, and he managed government-funded Sustainable Lifestyle Campaigns on both coasts.Ahhh, the fierce Evangelicals of....the United Church of Christ.
2 comments:
Scott,
The Wired article is mistaken. I'm not a former evangelical. I am a current evangelical. I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior in 1979 (and he's still my Lord). I graduated from Evangel University, affiliated with the Assemblies of God, in 1984. And if you know anything about the United Church of Christ you'll know that roughly 30%-35% of its members self-identify as evangelical (I was called to minister there because so many evangelical contexts reject evolution. I have read the Bible completely through twice, speak in tongues, pray, and fast daily. Perhaps you find it necessary to exclude me from being "evangelical" for legitimate reasons. Nonetheless, that's who and what I am: an evolutionary evangelical (NOT as the article misrepresents, an ex-evangelical). If you care to, see my Evolutionary Christianity essay: http://www.ThankGodforEvolution.com/EvolutionaryChristianity.pdf
My evangelical blog is: http://EvolutionaryChristianity.theooze.com
God bless,
Michael
Oops. I fast regularly, not daily. :-)
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