Evolutionary christianity?
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Evolutionary christianity?
A friend recently directed me to Michael Dowd and evolutionary creationism. He claims to be an evolutionary evangelist (whatever that really means), but it seems very confused to me. He claims gods will is revealed by science but also claims no supernatural explanations (no god?). Has anyone come across this notion? Is it based on an older philosophical position?
Shelley- Posts : 3
Join date : 2010-07-29
Re: Evolutionary christianity?
The guy seems a bit confused, to me. Perhaps he is reluctant to come right out and proclaim a materialistic world view.
PrometheusWins- Posts : 2
Join date : 2011-02-11
Re: Evolutionary christianity?
I have been listening to a few of the recorded interviews he did recently at evolutionarychristianity.com. The only one I would recommend is the one with John Shelby Spong, and you have to register to get to that one now. I agree, Michael is confused. Or at least, he has made something up that is pallitable for him and he just wants to share it. The closest person to a source for him would be Teilhard de Chardin. He repeats his own philosophy frequently in the interviews, which is really annoying as an interviewer, but if you want to get a sense of it, find the one with Denis Lamoureux. They both started out as fundamentalists, but went to colleges that taught evolution, so they eventually gave in. They say they met professors who taught evolution from a "Christ centered" perspective.
I don't think it really means anything other than you occasionally insert "and isn't God wonderful" in between sentences while talking about science. I have to give them some credit because they are willing to meet a fundamentalist where they are. This gives them a much better chance of continuing a conversation with a young earther than most evolution believers. To do this, they start with historical truths, like Darwin struggled with his beliefs and that he acknowledged the complexity of the universe could point to designer and then move slowly to language like, "God reveals his truth through scientific evidence". They also draw the line, and do not to take those facts and twist them to the extremes the ID movement has.
Dowd, and his wife Connie Barlow see the problems with the science religion debate and have an interesting approach that can be found at http://www.thegreatstory.org/. In that they have been able to bring scientific education into Sunday School, I give them credit. Sometimes he goes a little far with use of terms like "sin" or "afterlife" and if you listen to the Spong interview, you'll see even he couldn't go along with him.
One of the interviews was with Doug Pagitt, another guy who seems confused. I put a question on their discussion page asking them just what they believe, but I did it about 3 weeks after the interview, so I don't know if they are still reading them.
I don't think it really means anything other than you occasionally insert "and isn't God wonderful" in between sentences while talking about science. I have to give them some credit because they are willing to meet a fundamentalist where they are. This gives them a much better chance of continuing a conversation with a young earther than most evolution believers. To do this, they start with historical truths, like Darwin struggled with his beliefs and that he acknowledged the complexity of the universe could point to designer and then move slowly to language like, "God reveals his truth through scientific evidence". They also draw the line, and do not to take those facts and twist them to the extremes the ID movement has.
Dowd, and his wife Connie Barlow see the problems with the science religion debate and have an interesting approach that can be found at http://www.thegreatstory.org/. In that they have been able to bring scientific education into Sunday School, I give them credit. Sometimes he goes a little far with use of terms like "sin" or "afterlife" and if you listen to the Spong interview, you'll see even he couldn't go along with him.
One of the interviews was with Doug Pagitt, another guy who seems confused. I put a question on their discussion page asking them just what they believe, but I did it about 3 weeks after the interview, so I don't know if they are still reading them.
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