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How to Love God AND Science
By Martin English | April 17, 2008
From an interview that Wired.Com had with Michael Dowd, a leading proponent of evolutionary theology:
On the nature of God: “Evolution theology offers an undeniable God. Nobody would ask, ‘Do you believe in water? In life? In the universe?’ Those are absurd questions.” Instead, said Dowd, “God is another word for universe, and the divine imperative is evident in the properties of emergent and symbiotic systems.”
On the current cultural landscape: “Up until now, there’s been this big gulf. On the one side are creationists. On the other are the new atheists, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and Dan Dennett, who say that you have to reject religion completely in order to accept evolution.”
On Dawkins and the New Atheists: “I’m grateful that they’re doing what they’re doing. They’re plowing the field. There’s a hunger in Americans for a meaningful, inspiring way of thinking about what science is revealing to us. Dawkins let me reprint [in Thank God for Evolution, Dowd's new book] a letter he wrote to his 10-year-old daughter.”
What separates Dowd from most people involved in this debate appears to be his knowledge of the scientific method, and when to invoke it.
For example, people who believe in God will tend to be ignored by science, if they try to explain the characteristics of the world around us in ways that are blatantly contradicted by the testable application of rational thought (i.e. applied science). But supporters of science should not denigrate religion simply to make themselves feel better. After all, the real danger of the 21st Century, is fanaticism and dogma of all sorts, religious and secular.
Regardless of your opinion of “rational” v “faith” based approaches to life, many aspects of life and morality are outside science. This is because we can’t apply scientific methods to them; they can’t be independently tested against control variables, or even tested at all – we get one go.
And above all, “if your car blows a tire, you need a car jack and a helping hand, not a Bible or the latest Richard Dawkins treatise.”
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