'Creatheist' reconciles evolution, religion

The Rev. Michael Dowd says science can prove other stories correct

NICEVILLE — The Rev. Michael Dowd is on a mission to reconcile science and religion.     “Who would let a first-century dentist fill our children’s teeth?” Dowd asked Tuesday. “But we’re letting first-century theologians fill our children’s heads every day.”     A self-proclaimed evolutionary evangelist, Dowd recently released “Thank God for Evolution!”, which states that understanding evolution can actually enhance faith.

Can God Love Darwin, Too?

Evolutionists Fight the 'Godless' Rap 

By Sharon Begley

Sept. 17, 2007 issue - There may be some battlefields where the gospel's "blessed are the peacemakers" holds true. But despite the work of a growing number of scholars and millions of dollars in foundation funding to find harmony between science and faith, evolution still isn't one of them. Just ask biologist Richard Colling. A professor at Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois and a lifelong member of the evangelical Church of the Nazarene, Colling wrote a 2004 book called "Random Designer" because—as he said in a letter to students and colleagues this year—"I want you to know the truth that God is bigger, far more profound and vastly more creative than you may have known." Moreover, he said, God "cares enough about creation to harness even the forces of [Darwinian] randomness."

Are you older than dirt? Nah. But water ...

A former pastor will discuss how evolution and creationism can coexist and thrive.

By Eileen SchulteCLEARWATER - You, sitting there. Do you feel old this morning?Well, consider this, courtesy of author Michael Dowd: You are older than you thought.A lot older.Cosmically, you are about 14-billion years old, the same age as the universe - give or take 20, 40 or 80 years, whenever your birth certificate says you were born, says Dowd, a former pastor speaking to the Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater this week.He said the water that makes up the majority of our bodies was formed about 3.5-billion years ago."We are literally stardust," he said. "The atoms of our bodies were created inside the bellies of giant stars that lived and died before our sun was born.

Finding My Religion

By David Ian Miller

The evolution-versus-creationism debate is one of those perennial hot-button issues, like abortion and school prayer, that almost invariably leads to polarization. It seems as if you either think there's a place for teaching a biblical perspective in the schools, as many fundamentalist Christians contend, or you believe evolution, grounded in scientific fact, is the only paradigm worth exploring.

Michael Dowd is an itinerant preacher who believes he has found a middle path that transcends and includes both camps. For the past three years, Dowd, a nondenominational Christian minister, and his wife, science writer Connie Barlow, have been driving across the country, stopping at Christian and Unitarian Universalist churches, Jewish synagogues, Quaker meeting houses and Buddhist meditation centers to teach religious audiences about evolution. Their goal is to present a story of the universe, which they call the "great story," in a way that people -- whatever their spiritual orientation -- can embrace.