Plume publishes paperback with new author introduction
18 | 05 09 15:27
Endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and religious leaders across the spectrum, THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION offers the missing link in the debate over Darwin vs. Design-a sacred view of evolution that is "beyond biology or belief." Dowd, an ordained Christian minister and former young-earth creationist, now proclaims a gospel billions of years old and embraces evolution as theology, not just theory.
"Creation and evolution are one and the same," explains Dowd. "Science and religion go hand in hand. One without the other leaves humanity lost in the literature, searching in vain for answers to post-modern problems in ancient religious texts written when people believed the world was flat. Only by looking through evolutionary eyes can we see our way out of the current global integrity crisis that is destroying economies and ecosystems around the world."
To Dowd, religious doctrines such as 'the Fall' and 'Original Sin' are best understood as "night language," which points to inherited instincts around food, safety, and sex that ensured the survival of our ancestors but have become a burden in modern life. Dowd's unorthodox message focuses not only on what evolution reveals about the past, but on prophetic possibilities for a hopeful future far beyond the doomsday scenarios that have dominated popular thinking for decades.
Recent polls show that more Americans than ever are abandoning traditional religion. Dowd writes how religions that are out of touch with reality will inevitably go extinct. He offers a union of faith and reason that grounds belief in fact, inspires integrity, and religiously celebrates 13.7 billion years of "outrageous good fortune for humanity"-a reality Dowd interprets as "deep-time grace." In Thank GOD for EVOLUTION, Dowd delivers what is surely the central message of our time: "The choice to evolve is ours." He invites people of every faith, and none at all, to passionately participate in the next great epoch in the emergence of consciousness and culture.
Reverend Michael Dowd is one of the most inspiring speakers in America today. For the past 7 years he and his wife, Connie Barlow, a noted science writer, have lived permanently on the road sharing a sacred view of evolution with more than a thousand religious and secular audiences of all ages, as America's evolutionary evangelists. At home in both conservative and liberal settings, and uniquely gifted at building bridges between believers and nonbelievers, Michael is passionate about sharing the 14-billion-year epic of evolution in ways that uplift and expand heart, mind, and soul.
“The universe took 13.7 billion years to produce this amazing book. I heartily recommend it.”
–John Mather, NASA Senior Astrophysicist, 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
"The science vs. religion debate is over. A must read for all, including scientists."
–Craig Mello, 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology
“At last someone who understands that all of reality is sacred and science is our method of comprehending it.”
–Lee Hartwell, 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine
“A thoughtful, timely, challenging—and readable—synthesis of science and spirituality.”
–John F. Haught, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Georgetown University
“That evolution is a divine force has not been well appreciated or articulated, up till now.”
–Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired Magazine, author of Out of Control
Title: THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World
Author: Michael Dowd
Publisher: Plume
Pub month: May 2009
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-452-29534-6