• Pentacostal preacher evangelizes evolution as theology, not theory

• Evolution Theology offers missing link in debate over Darwin vs. Design

• Bold new book praised by Nobel Prize-winning scientists

NORTH AMERICA - Rev. Michael Dowd , author of the bold new book THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World (Viking/On-Sale Date: June 19, 2008/978-0-670-02045-4/$24.95) is preaching his cosmic gospel to growing audiences across America.

Dowd, an ordained Christian minister, and his wife Connie Barlow, an acclaimed science writer, are packing pews and leaving audiences across America awestruck with their programs that present evolution as theology, not theory, and science as divine revelation. Since 2002 the couple have lived out of a van, permanently traveling the continent, teaching and preaching the "Gospel of Evolution" -- a message that has earned them the moniker: America's Evolutionary Evangelists.

Dowd's breakthrough book and the couple's mobile ministry are at the forefront of a new religious movement in America based on Evolution Theology . The perspective proposes a marriage of science and religion that is being embraced by those on both sides of the debate over the origins of the Universe and evolution of life on Earth, including five Nobel Prize-winning scientists and a long list of respected religious leaders, from Bishops to Baptists to Buddhists.

Grounded in mainstream science and preached with pentecostal fervor, the former anti-evolution fundamentalist turned evolutionary missionary shares a “God’s eye view” of everything from microbiology to supernovas. His provocative program is inspiring evolutionary epiphanies among believers and non-believers alike, and liberating literalists left, right, and center.

“Finally, a God that makes sense!” blurted out an atheist audience member at a recent Colorado presentation.

“The universe took 13.7 billion years to produce this amazing book,” said John Mather, NASA Senior Astrophysicist and a 2006 Nobel laureate in physics.

“The science vs. religion debate is over!” exclaimed Craig Mello, a 2006 Nobel laureate in medicine.

"Trying to understand reality without an evolutionary worldview is like trying to understand infection without microscopes or the structure of the Universe without telescopes,” claims Reverend Michael Dowd, an ordained Christian minister and former Baptist and United Church of Christ pastor. “It’s not merely difficult, it’s impossible. These are not the End Times for humanity, they are just the beginning! Earth is billions of years old, and we only emerged a few million years ago, a geological blink of an eye. Fossils were not put here to test our faith; they were left behind by a divine creative process that made everything we experience around us and within us. Fossils teach us faith by showing proof positive of the grace that has guided us safely through deep time to the present moment.”

“It's both mind-blowing and heart-opening when you can look at evolution from a sacred perspective. Evolution Theology breathes new life into religious insights at the heart of the world's great traditions. There was a time when I was eager to argue with anyone who thought the world was more than 6,000 years old. Now, I preach a gospel as old as the Universe itself.”

“The Big Bang never ended! God didn’t stop communicating truth vital to human wellbeing thousands of years ago, when religious insights were recorded on papyrus and animal skins. God is still faithfully and publicly communicating with us today through the worldwide self-correcting scientific enterprise. Facts are God’s native tongue. Studying evolution is like following cosmic breadcrumbs home.”

“Until we learn to see through sacred evolutionary eyes, atheists and fundamentalists will continue to blame each other for the world’s ills, liberals and conservatives will keep trashing one another, and, collectively, we will fail to see that enormous global challenges are divine evolutionary drivers guiding us to greatness. What happens to humanity next is up to us now. Our future evolution will be by choice, not chance, and that’s really great news!””

The Movement

Over 11,000 mainstream Christian ministers have signed on to The Clergy Letter Project , an open letter concerning religion and science that states: "We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as 'one theory among others' is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator."

This year, over 814 congregations from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and nine countries participated in Evolution Weekend , a time for Christians to come together to discuss the relationship between religion and science and "demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith." Scheduled to coincide with Darwin's birthday, February 12, the annual global event is now in its 8th year.