St. Charles? Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Joel Kontinen
I just received my second issue of The Evolutionary Times. Published on Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, Rev. Michael Dowd’s e-magazine interprets religion in general and Christianity in particular from a naturalistic perspective.
In Dowd’s Brave New Religion, Charles Darwin has a place of honour. In wishing happy birthday to his hero, the evo-reverend says:
Thanks to the role that Charles Darwin and countless other evolutionaries have played in enriching my faith and guiding my path, today I have no resentments, no secrets, and no unfinished business.
The entire magazine is a Song of Songs dedicated to the wonderful world of evo-religion where Christian concepts get a new evolutionary meaning:
Evolution gives us a more intimate and personal relationship with God because God is no longer far off, unnatural, and impotent. And it gives us a way of thinking about religion that helps us understand how and why religions are different, and how we can cooperate together. Both of these are, to my mind, really Good News.
Rev. Michael Dowd is a latter-day Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit priest who tried to set up a new evolution-based faith system.
Dowd does us all a favour by revealing the religious character of evolution. He says he takes “a holy view of evolution”.
In Dowd’s theology, God becomes a principle in nature. Dowd speaks freely of Christ and salvation but gives them a new unorthdox meaning. While there might be no promise of the afterlife for the adherents of evo-religion, Dowd is content to have his heaven in the here and now, inspired by the wonders of evolution.
Dowd’s theology brings to mind St. Paul’s words in Romans 1:25, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator”.
Dowdism might well be a prototype of the world religion spoken of in the Book of Revelation.
Sources:
Dowd, Michael. 2009. Happy Birthday Charles Darwin. http://evolutionarytimes.org/
West, Paul. 2009. Dowd Discovered. http://evolutionarytimes.org/files/e783cdbe513290fa548de21fc09cb089-18.php
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