Why I thank God for Charles Darwin
REFORM magazine
As the 150th anniversary year of the theory of evolution draws to a close, Michael Dowd explains how embracing Charles Darwin's ideas has deepened his faith.
For years, I believed that Darwin was of the devil. Now, I deeply honor his contribution to religion and my walk with God. Indeed, other than Jesus, no one has had a more positive impact on my faith and my ministry than has Charles Darwin.
For the last six years as an itinerant evolutionary evangelist, I have preached the good news of evolution from the pulpits of hundreds of churches across America. Faith can be strengthened and difficulties in life surmounted - all by bringing a mainstream scientific understanding of evolution into our religious lives.
The response has been phenomenal. People of all ages and across the theological spectrum light up when they see new possibilities open for them, their loved ones, and the world. Often tearfully, always excitedly, they share their testimonials. Here is mine.
Crossing Over in the Culture War
Washington Post
"Evolutionists Flock to Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain," ran a recent headline in the satirical newspaper the Onion. The picture showed breathless biologists worshiping a Shroud-of-Turin-like apparition of Charles Darwin's face on a concrete wall.
Darwinian fundamentalist mystics among us? Well . . . probably not. All the same, it's getting hard to tell the players without a scorecard in America's most peculiar culture war: the battle between evolution and its enemies.
Where Darwin meets Genesis
Chicago Daily Herald
By Marni Pyke
In 1925, the Scopes monkey trial generated headlines, hoopla and hate between proponents of teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in schools and those who called it blasphemous.
It wouldn't be the last time questions of faith have divided the body politic as overtones of religion in this year's presidential contest show.
The Rev. Michael Dowd wants to change that.
Evolutionary evangelist brings together science and religion
White Lake Beacon
MUSKEGON - To paraphrase Mark Twain, the dispute between science and religion has been greatly exaggerated. In fact, according to Rev. Michael Dowd, that dispute may not even exist.
Dowd, author of ‘Thank God for Evolution', brought his traveling evolutionary roadshow to Muskegon's Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation this past week, aiming to surprise even the most certain theists and hardened atheists with his notion that science and religion aren't mutually exclusive enterprises.
In fact, Dowd contends the two must co-exist if humans are to have any chance of survival.
Interview with Michael Dowd
Science of Mind
“Being ‘in integrity’ or ‘in Christ’ is being wholly aligned with the smaller and larger creative wholes of our existence.”
by Barbara Stahura
A Michael Dowd presentation on evolution is unlike any other talk on the subject. Complete with breathtaking photos of space from the Hubble telescope along with a drawing of our four-part brain labeled with animals representing “Lizard Legacy,” “Furry Li’l Mammal,” “Monkey Mind” and “Higher Porpoise,” Dowd’s lively lectures are proof that evolution can be understood in a way that bridges religious differences. Thousands of people across the country have heard and embraced his message, and his book, Thank God for Evolution, continues to spread the good word.
Minister preaches 'Gospel of Evolution'
The Capital Times
by Samara Kalk Derby
Michael Dowd, an ordained Christian minister and author of the recent book "Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World," told a Madison crowd Monday night that nothing matters more than what we think about evolution.
‘Thank God for Evolution' author visits Racine
The Journal Times
RACINE - The Rev. Michael Dowd and his wife, Connie Barlow, hit the road almost seven years ago and never looked back.
They've traveled around the country ever since, preaching what Dowd calls the good news about evolution.
Dowd will be in Racine on Tuesday as part of a visit to Wisconsin where he is giving about a dozen presentations based on his work as an evolutionary evangelist and his book "Thank God for Evolution."
The program starts at 7 p.m. at the Siena Center, 5635 Erie St.
Book Review by Rich Heffern
National Catholic Reporter
Robert Heinlein's science fiction classic Orphans of the Sky is the story of an enormous "multigeneration" starship, five miles long and thousands of feet wide, outfitted for a long voyage to Far Centaurus, a distant place in our galaxy.
Three or four generations into the voyage, the inhabitants, after a long-ago mutiny, have forgotten that they live on a ship and that it's supposed to go somewhere. For them, the ship's windowless interior is their entire universe, and even the idea that something might exist "outside" the ship is so foreign a concept that most can't imagine it. Their lives revolve around the necessities of eating, mating and feeding the matter converter, controlled by a high priesthood of "scientists," themselves ignorant of where they actually are.
Religion that’s not afraid of science
National Catholic Reporter
Three recent books take seriously the story science tells us about where we are and how we got here on Earth. NCR columnist Rich Heffern talks with the authors to discuss the implications for religion of modern science's account of an unimaginably vast universe of 500 billion galaxies and the evolution of humans that took place over millions of years.
Christian author, science professors believe God and evolution co-exist
The Tennessean
By Bob Smietana
Michael Dowd believes in the gospel of evolution.
The former United Church of Christ pastor travels the country in a converted Dodge van preaching what he calls a 14 billion-year-old lesson in grace.
"The only version of evolution that most of us have been exposed to — how it's taught — is a chance, meaningless, purposeless, cruel, Godless process," he said. "And that is not what I am talking about."
He believes God has always been present in evolution.
