ghostsofevolution | Michael Dowd - "Darwin Day Celebration" 2011, Omaha @ghostsofevolution | Uploaded September 2011 | Updated October 2024, 27 minutes ago.
Michael Dowd's dynamic illustrated talk for the interfaith celebration of Darwin Day in Omaha, Nebraska, February 2011, and hosted by Countryside UCC Church. Evolutionary topics include the importance of a Big History perspective in which we forthrightly see our evolved human nature as challenging us with mismatched instincts, especially in modern environments full of "supernormal stimuli" temptations. Death as "natural and generative at every level of reality " means it is to be honored, not feared.
Dowd advocates that an "evidential reformation" is the next evolutionary step for the Christian tradition (indeed, for all religious traditions). Humanity is entering a developmental rite of passage "from beliefs to knowledge." Henceforth, humanity will be guided not by ancient scrptures frozen in time, but by "scientific and historical evidence and cross-cultural experience."
He celebrates the worldview of "religious naturalism," in which faith is a synonym for trust -- not attachment to ancient "pre-natural" beliefs. "God" is a term, which, as a religious naturalist and evolutionary Christian, Dowd is stlll inclined to use, as it personalizes his relationship to Reality. But there is nothing supernatural about it. "God is a personification, not a person, not some being up there out there."
Dowd's educational website is thegreatstory.org
He is the author of the 2008 book "Thank God for Evolution," and host of a 38-episode audio series: Evolutionary Christianity, evolutionarychristianity.com
See also Dowd's 2009 presentation in the Distinguished Lecture Series at CalTech, sponsored by the Skeptics Society: youtu.be/_2ATHA8Cyp0
Michael Dowd's dynamic illustrated talk for the interfaith celebration of Darwin Day in Omaha, Nebraska, February 2011, and hosted by Countryside UCC Church. Evolutionary topics include the importance of a Big History perspective in which we forthrightly see our evolved human nature as challenging us with mismatched instincts, especially in modern environments full of "supernormal stimuli" temptations. Death as "natural and generative at every level of reality " means it is to be honored, not feared.
Dowd advocates that an "evidential reformation" is the next evolutionary step for the Christian tradition (indeed, for all religious traditions). Humanity is entering a developmental rite of passage "from beliefs to knowledge." Henceforth, humanity will be guided not by ancient scrptures frozen in time, but by "scientific and historical evidence and cross-cultural experience."
He celebrates the worldview of "religious naturalism," in which faith is a synonym for trust -- not attachment to ancient "pre-natural" beliefs. "God" is a term, which, as a religious naturalist and evolutionary Christian, Dowd is stlll inclined to use, as it personalizes his relationship to Reality. But there is nothing supernatural about it. "God is a personification, not a person, not some being up there out there."
Dowd's educational website is thegreatstory.org
He is the author of the 2008 book "Thank God for Evolution," and host of a 38-episode audio series: Evolutionary Christianity, evolutionarychristianity.com
See also Dowd's 2009 presentation in the Distinguished Lecture Series at CalTech, sponsored by the Skeptics Society: youtu.be/_2ATHA8Cyp0
