For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23)

Introducing Science Fiction Christianity

You might remember I told you in Doug Pagitt Agrees With Evolutionary Evangelist Michael Dowd that Rev. Michael Dowd, whom I first brought to your attention in Jesus Died For Our Reptilian Brain, is “an ordained Christian minister with a Master of Divinity degree”[1]. He’s also author of Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World (TGfE) and:

(Online source)

However, Michael Dowd is not a trained scientist. The host of the video program below is Spencer Burke, founder of the aptly named THEOOZE.com, which is “dedicated to the emerging Church culture.” This is a very popular website for those around the sinfully ecumenical Emergent Church, which has now blossomed into a full-blown neo-liberal cult that’s operating within mainstream evangelicalism.

In the Apprising Ministries article Michael Dowd & Spencer Burke—Integrity And Evolutionary Christianity we turned our attention to Michael Dowd – Integrity and Evolutionary Christianity, an episode of ThinkFwd with Spencer Burke that originally aired in July of 2009. What follows now is my interaction with a transcription of this program; and the aforementioned post, which serves as Part 1, contains the transcription complete without any commentary.

That said, before we embark you’ll want to make sure to take some kind of a heavy tranquilizer. ;) No I’m just kidding, I don’t really advocate that; I was simply checking to see if you were paying attention. Seriously though, you will need to prepare yourself for an unusual foray because men like Michael Dowd and Spencer Burke, as they bend and shape words into whatever Play-Doh shapes they wish to, are going to be taking us deeply into the postmodern Wonderland of Humpty Dumpty language.

Okay, with that now out of the way, Burke begins:

Hello and welcome to TheOoze.TV. My name is Spencer Burke, your host for “Think Forward”. In this week’s episode, I sit down with my friend Michael Dowd.

This is important here; we’ve now established that Burke and Dowd are indeed friends. Actually, there’s a close relationship between the two, as you’ll discover below. Burke then goes on to tell us that Michael Dowd has:

written a book called, Thank God for Evolution. In the past we’ve seen religion and evolution at odds with each other rather than complimenting each other.

Just so you know, Dowd’s also written a previous book as well in 1991 entitled Earthspirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity, which he wrote when he was still pastor of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, and not yet married to his evolutionary Christianity running mate Connie Barlow—sharer of The Great Story with Dowd. Well, just look at that title again will you; Christians caring for the environment, sounds pretty good huh? O no, no, no, you silly unenlightened one; that’s only part of it. So we really need to get you up to speed so you can come to see the big picture there grasshopper.

Um, try human beings themselves are the environment; that’s right. Shame on you little one; you mean you really didn’t know that “we are the Earth at an evolved level of complexity and spiritual awareness, capable of conscious choice”?[2] While describing “The New Cosmology” Dowd also informs us:

We are neither stewards, nor cartakers, nor anything else that assumes we are seperate from nature. We have no existence apart from the living Earth. We are Earth. We are the self-conscious and spiritually aware organization of elements of this living planet.[3]

Wha?! We are Earth? Oooo-kay then. Well now, let’s just hold that thought shall we; we’ll come back to this ecological “Christian” science fiction in a bit. However, we’re not even out of the introduction to the program yet; Burke continues introducing his friend Michael Dowd:

Michael and I talk about the possibility of seeing in a new light many of the scriptural ideas, like original sin and the idea of the reptilian brain. I think it’s going to be an extremely challenging episode and I hope that you’ll share it with your friends and head on over to TheOoze.TV.

This Evolutionary Christianity Is A New Postmodern Form Of Liberalism

You should know by now, that when someone tells you about “the possibility of seeing” Scripture “in a new light,” translation: reinterpretation—you are about to off-roading into someone’s evil imagination. You’ll see in this program that Burke and Spencer will redefine original sin and then tell us about, er-ah, our “reptilian brain.” *whispering* I’m not really sure if it’s true, but it seems rumor has it, that these guys just may have watching a few too many campy Japanese Sci-fi movies over the years in their accountability group.

Spencer Burke now begins the inteview:

Burke: Well Michael, we’ve had some fun over the years…we actually were in an accountability group…a lot of people are like, “You were in an accountability group?” I’m go, “Yeah.” But we did that over the phone, there were like 10 of us from all over the world…and that was very interesting.

Yeah, I imagine it was interesting…why do I suddenly hear the theme song for the Twilight Zone playing? Again however, Burke admits his ongoing relationship with Michael Dowd, which has been close enough to call each other into *ahem* accountability. My point is, we have every reason to believe that “over the years,” Burke would certainly be aware of Dowd’s *cough* “Christian” teachings—such as that little gem I just shared above. What he says next indicates—at least some—leaders within the early Emerging Church “conversation,” of which Spencer Burke is certainly part, “really connected with…the idea of integrity.”

“But,” you may wonder, “I think integrity’s good, right; I mean, what’s wrong with that?” Nothing, in and of itself. However, as you’ll come to see, Dowd’s use of integrity—as it concerns our relationship to God—is something we only come to understand when have become “enlightened.” You know, in just the same fashion as the original Gnostics:

Dowd: Why integrity is so essential is because to be in integrity is to be right with God. It really means being aligned with reality as reality really is, not as you wish it was. And, uh, and that really is what it means to be right with God.

So far, we have the New Agey statement “being aligned with reality as reality really is”—ok Michael, gotcha; reality really is…um, the real realness. See, I can talk in, well…obvious obviousness too. Now, as Christians, we could agree that integrity does involve being “right with God.” But now we’re about to be caught in the tractor beam of a Klingon warship; oops, I’m sorry…*ahem* wrong metaphor. We’re really about to enter into that Twilight Zone of the New Spirituality when I show you what Michael Dowd means when he talks about “God.” Hint: It has absolutely nothing to do with the personal God of the Bible.

The other day in Michael Dowd And Science Fiction Christianity I included a segment from the Fighting for the Faith program of Christian apologist Chris Rosebrough of Pirate Christian Radio; there he reviews a sermon by Dowd called “Evolutionize Your Life: Heaven Is Coming Home To Reality,” which was given at a spiritual blackhole called C3 Exchange. In addition I published a transcript of that review to make it easier for you to follow along with, and to understand, Dowd’s hybrid New Spirituality and evolutionary emergence theory version of what I’d say is really some kind of Science Fiction Christianity.

From Evolutionize Your Life, here’s what Michael Dowd means when he speaks of “God” above:

We don’t merely have to wait to die to experience heaven; we can experience it in this life by being aligned with reality…saying “yes” to life as it really shows up. Faith in God and trusting the universe, celebrating what is,… if we don’t know (at least the basic flow, the basic broad sweeps of this evolutionary story that we’re a part of) we’re not going to know that the stars are our ancestors…

Human beings are literally the universe after some 14 billion years of unbroken evolution now becoming conscious of itself. We are literally nature uncovering it’s own nature…we all have come to ways of relating to reality… When we remember that God is a sacred, meaningful personification (not a person) all of the sudden not only does that make sense of all the world’s religious traditions and their differences, but it also allows us to see that there’s no conflict between science and religion.  

Um, “the stars are our ancestors”? Huh; “human beings are literally the universe”? “God is a sacred, meaningful personification” and “not a person”; since when was any of this part of Christianity? Answer: Never. In fact, this is in stark contradiction to what God’s Word and the Christian faith teach. The doctrine of  “God” that Dowd muses is at best panentheism (all-in-God); and at worst, pantheism (all-is-God), which we see e.g. from his definition of God in TGfE. He first talks about how creation supposedly springs forth from each initial nest; for example, from the nest of “Sun and Earth” comes life upon this planet.

Then we are told by Rev. Michael Dowd:

God, from this perspective, can be understood as a legitimate proper name for the largest nesting doll: the One Creative Reality that is not a subset of some larger, more comprehensive creative reality. God is that which sources and infuses everything, yet is also co-emergent with and indistinguishable from anything…

Different traditions, necessarily, use different images and metaphors to describe Ultimate Reality and our relationship with Him/Her/It…the path to wholeness and a right relationship with Reality is not complicated. Integrity if the key…get that you are a part of the Whole, and then commit to living in deep integrity…

Prayer from this perspective is truly an intimate process, and one that even an atheist might embrace. Prayer is no longer an act of petitioning a far-off supernatural being… With an understanding of “God” as no less than a proper name for Supreme Wholeness, prayer can be understood analogously as a cell in deep communion with the larger body of which it is part.[4]

Anyone Who Teaches Another god Apart From What The Bible Teaches Is A False Prophet

In other words, for Dowd “God” is not a Person in any actual sense; it is merely a “that” which produced the rest of the universe—it’s body that’s allegedly still evolving. And we see this again in Dowd’s article Evolutionize Your Life: Heaven Is Coming Home to Reality:

God is not a person; God is a sacred personification of one or more deeply significant dimensions of reality. If we miss this we miss everything! (Online source)

Here’s the main point; it is absolutely undeniable that Dowd is calling for us to follow a god foreign to the one true and living Personal God of Holy Scripture, which then makes him a false prophet:

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

Now we consider that at Dowd’s website under the endorsements for TGfE we find:

(Online source)

Ok, now a couple of questions should come emerging:  Unless “pastor” Spencer Burke has endorsed a book he hasn’t read, then he is well aware that Dowd is describing another god. Why then is this Emerging Church pastor endorsing and spreading the spiritual poison of a false prophet? And in Doug Pagitt Agrees With Evolutionary Evangelist Michael Dowd I showed you that Michael Dowd was to appear on Pagitt’s radio show a couple of weeks ago.

On that program Doug Pagitt said:

Michael hasn’t called in yet,…here’s what I’d like to talk to him about: I like what he’s up to…he’s written a book called, Thank God for Evolution and his argument is that there’s this big thing going on in the larger story of the cosmos and that it’s not at all inconsistent with Christianity; it’s not all inconsistent with the Hebrew faith, it’s not at all inconsistent with the other great faiths of the world. 

That evolution is not the problem; evolution is a conversation partner about how things go. And on his Facebook status (and if you’re friends with Michael Dowd you might have seen this already) Michael’s Facebook status there’s this great little phrase there that I really want to talk to him about and we’re going to get him back on the show sometime (unless he’s dodging me on purpose.) The phrase is this, “Facts…facts are God’s native tongue.”

Did you catch that; Pagitt likes “what [Dowd’s] up to”; and rather amazingly, in addition, apparently he even thinks that what I’ve just showed you above from Dowd’s teachings is “not at all inconsistent with Christianity.” But Dowd’s evolving, impersonal, god is clearly not the God that Christians believe in; because He is revealed in the Bible as the Persons of God the Father, God the Son—Christ Jesus of Nazareth—and God the Holy Spirit, Who are the one God. The LORD God Almighty is not merely some inanimate force as the ground of Being; so why then is Pagitt endorsing Dowd when we’re not talking about the same God at all.

Now we return to the video program below. Next Dowd dreams:

Dowd:  And why we get out of integrity…I mean one of the things as I think about the gospel…what you know…what we mean by the gospel…the “good news”, well…good news is only actually experienced as good news if its in some way an adequate response to (or addressing) of the bad news. So the question is always…the pre-question before you can even talk about the gospel is, “What’s the bad news?”

Again, here we can agree, to a point; in fact, Dowd actually does have a point: The man-centered Church growth Movement, whether it be the Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven section or the new postmodern form of “big tent” Progressive Christianity, sometimes referred to by the Emergent Church rebels against the final authority of God’s Word as Emergence Christianity, has ignored the “Bad News” of eternal conscious torment of the unrepentant sinner in a literal place Jesus Himself called Hell. But as you’re about to see below, this is clearly not what Dowd’s diatribe is about:

Dowd: You know…and most people today aren’t really you know, sweating bullets thinking that they’re going to spend eternity in a burning hell; that’s not the bad news they’re dealing with. So, if what we’re offering in terms of the gospel is merely cosmic fire insurance, that’s not a surprise that young people are not flocking to the churches. 

Proper Doctrine Is Defined By The Scriptures And Not Populist Opinion

No doubt this plays very well to the individualist pouty postmodern “spiritual” crowd [read: lovers of self]. They say, “Yeah, Hell’s not real because people don’t believe in it; it doesn’t connect with them, so it’s not their truth.” O, have I got news for you: God — has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:31). So what do think people need to be saved from; the next hit song by Lady Gaga? Jesus Himself tells you:

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell…”

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell… You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew 5:29-30; 10:28; 23:33)

You see, Hell doesn’t cease to be real just because Dowd and Burke et al don’t choose to believe in it. The truth is, people aren’t flocking to churches because so many of them aren’t preaching the Gospel; and so, God isn’t adding to their number those who are being saved (cf. Acts 2:47). You should also know that this talk of “cosmic fire insurance” is a pet Emerging Church straw man. Unfortunately it has now bled deeply into evangelicalism itself now; but we aren’t teaching that you merely say a prayer—you’re in—and then you’re free to just live any ol’ way you want to because you’re anti-sin Stay Out Of Hell insurance is all paid-off.

No, those who are truly regenerated are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). That so many professing Christians are not doing so doesn’t mean that the Gospel is wrong; rather, it’s a terrible testimony to the powerlessness of all these man-pleasing preachers. This also includes purveyors of the mystical mush god like Dowd and Burke—whom God hasn’t sent, and yet they’ve run forth prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds (Jeremiah 14:14).

Tragically, as you can see, this is nothing new. Sadly, about all these people-pleasers are doing is filling buildings; or creating self-described “Christ-followers” who have deceived themselves into thinking that they are Christians because they’ve been told they can simply make a decision to follow God in the way of Jesus. It brings no pleasure to say so, but their god—with a man-shaped hole in its heart—gives them a social reformer “Jesus” who’s essentially Mahatma Gandhi with a beard. The fact is, too many of these self-professed Christ-followers really wouldn’t know the actual Jesus if they fell over Him; and granted, you won’t often hear this preached.

However, test me by the Scriptures, and you’ll quickly discover it’s the truth. Michael Dowd now continues laying out his evolutionary mythology as he redefines original sin according to his science fiction:

Dowd: And so, the bad news that’s universal that does give me a deeper, richer appreciation of traditional concepts (such as the fall of Adam and Eve and original sin), is that we all have instincts, we all have an unchosen nature; and we get this through our best understanding of science. We get this through what God has been revealing through evolutionary psychology and evolutionary brain science; is that we have a reptilian brain—the most ancient part of our brain—it’s concerned with the basis of survival…safety, sustenance, and sex…the core elements to survive and after puberty reproduce.

Huh? We have “a reptilian brain”? No we don’t; but now you know why I wrote the post Jesus Died For Our Reptilian Brain. What Dowd’s basically referring to was laid out by leading brain scientist Paul D. MacLean (1913-2007) in his magnum opus The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions; where MacLean:

proposed that the limbic system had evolved in early mammals to control fight-or-flight responses and react to both emotionally pleasurable and painful sensations. The concept is now broadly accepted in neuroscience… In the 1960s, Dr. MacLean enlarged his theory to address the human brain’s overall structure and divided its evolution into three parts, an idea that he termed the triune brain.

In addition to identifying the limbic system, he pointed to a more primitive brain called the R-complex, related to reptiles, which controls basic functions like muscle movement and breathing. The third part, the neocortex, controls speech and reasoning and is the most recent evolutionary arrival. (Online source)

This triune brain speculation is expanded by Michael Dowd into what he calls “the Quadrune brain” in his TGfE; simply put, the Reptilian brain, the Paleo-mammalian brain, the Neo-mammalian brain, and the Prefontal cortex. Dowd tells that a “half-century” the aforementioned “Paul MacLean introduced the idea that the human brain consists of three parts”; but then he writes:

Since then, scientists have recognized that there is a fourth and far more recently evolved mammalian structure, which is profoundly manifest in the human brain: the prefrontal cortex, or frontal lobes.[5]

Now you know what Dowd is describing above and when he goes on to tell us:

Then we have the paleo-mammalian brain—the old mammalian brain—which is concerned with feeling, bonding, emotions, kinship, status is very important to mammals (all mammals), play…you don’t find reptiles playing the way you find all mammals playing. Also, reciprocity…if I’m nice to you…if I’m kind and generous to you, you pretty much naturally are going to want to be nice back.

But, if I’m nasty to you, you’re pretty much instinctually are going to want to be nasty back; it’s hard wired…it’s why it’s so important to have laws in place that we can’t give politicians significant gifts because even if the rational part of the brain thinks they won’t feel indebted, the old mammalian brain can’t not feel indebted.

This Science Fiction Evolutionary Postmodern Neo-Liberalism Denies Original Sin

You can see, that for Dowd and Burke, we’re not at all interested in what the Bible actually teaches. Instead, we’re turning to the teachings of unregenerate people whose reasoning is corrupted by their fallen, sinful, human nature; people who will then just make up stuff to tell us what we already wanted to hear. But there problem is, sin isn’t in our minds; no, it’s actually our very human nature itself.

Jesus explains:

“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-23)

Notice, the evil we commit comes from within our kardia—Greek for heart i.e. the inner man; this has nothing at all to do with any evolving brain. The inspired Apostle Paul says to the regenerated Christian — We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6). Did you get that; the body of sin is enslaved to sin, but unfortunately too many are teaching today that if we can modify people’s behavior through education and/or practicing corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism they won’t sin.

This is why there’s such a push for people to be “praying” in an altered state of consciousness; the so-called “silence and solitude” of Contemplative/Centering Prayer. As I showed you earlier in Philip Clayton And A “Jesus” Who’s Gandhi With A Beard supposed Spiritual Master M. Basil Pennington, who was good friends with the late mystic monk Thomas Merton, has written:

In the course of the years, sitting in silent prayer, beyond where words can interfere, men and women of many diverse traditions have come together. In that deeper place a oneness is experienced that gives assurance and heart to our feeble ecumenical efforts and interreligious dialogues. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has said that if one percent of the people would meditate we will have peace. Jesus spoke of the leaven that will leaven the whole.[6]

I’ve already told you that this Emergent Church “big tent” Christianity incorporates emergence theory of evolutionary science because many in the EC believe that, right now, mankind is evolving upward into a higher state of consciousness; and in their delusions (see—2 Thessalonians 2:9-12) these neo-Gnostics feel their contemplative spirituality plays a huge role in this alleged evolution. In fact, in TGfE Dowd sees the supposedly newly evolved Prefontal cortex playing a role when he writes:

It is here in our prefrontal cortex where a new drive can emerge that is strong enough to help use choose among the competing mammalian and reptillian—and to do so with less stress and far more conviction. It is here that we can create and nurture a higher purpose,…[7]

Amazingly, during Dowd’s science fiction about the brain Spencer Burke interjects, “Pastors could learn something from that line, too.” No; but they really could learn about actual human nature from what I just shared from the truth of God’s Word. Dowd finishes up describing this fantasy of that Quadrune brain, which I outlined for you earlier; and as he does, notice carefully Burke is eating this foolishness right up:

Dowd: Yeah, yeah. So then there’s the neocortex…the neomammalian brain…and the neomammalian brain only two new drives come into being with the neocortex; the drive to comprehend and the drive to predict. Now, comprehend and predict for what? I mean, why would evolution produce an organism that was really good at comprehending and predicting? Well, so that the reptilian brain and the paleomammalian brain can get what they want more effectively. It’s like, you know, it’s one of the reasons why we’re masters of self-deception. We’re literally brilliant at rationalizing, ’cause I can deceive you so much more effectively if I were to deceive myself. 

Burke: Yeah. 

Dowd: And then the most recent part of our brain—the pre-frontal cortex—is all concerned with good judgment, with poor judgment, it’s about our sense of the divine, our sense of ultimate reality, ultimate wholeness…it’s unique to humans and as I said, it’s about good and poor judgment and it’s also the last to develop in young people. I mean, parents know this. 

Burke: Yeah.

Because There Is No Such Thing As Macro-Evolution Michael Dowd’s Mythology Collapses

This is all foreign to what the Bible teaches and would only be possible if we accept the idea of macro-evolution—one species evolves into another kind, which both Michael Dowd, Spencer Burke and apparently Doug Pagitt, adhere to. But God’s Word knows nothing of anything other than micro-evolution—changes within species while still remaining within their own kind.

My friend Dr. John Morris, a geologist by trade and president of the Institute for Creation Research, explains in What Is The Difference Between Macroevolution And Microevolution? that:

Macroevolution refers to major evolutionary changes over time, the origin of new types of organisms from previously existing, but different, ancestral types. Examples of this would be fish descending from an invertebrate animal, or whales descending from a land mammal. The evolutionary concept demands these bizarre changes.

Microevolution refers to varieties within a given type. Change happens within a group, but the descendant is clearly of the same type as the ancestor. This might better be called variation, or adaptation, but the changes are “horizontal” in effect, not “vertical.” Such changes might be accomplished by “natural selection,” in which a trait within the present variety is selected as the best for a given set of conditions, or accomplished by “artificial selection,” such as when dog breeders produce a new breed of dog…

[T]he scientific observations support the creation tenet that each basic type is separate and distinct from all others, and that while variation is inevitable, macroevolution does not and did not happen. (Online source)

So what now follows from Burke and Dowd could only true if we accept the highly speculative scientific theory of evolution:

Dowd:  Car insurance companies know this because it only develops between the age of 23 and 25. And, one of the things we know about testosterone levels (which is at the reptilian brain) is that the higher the testosterone levels, the more risk taking occurs in men and women both. So, if you get young men under the age of 25, which have a lot of testosterone without good judgment, it’s not a surprise that it’s so much more expensive to insure. 

Burke: Right. 

Dowd: So, where a lot of people find freedom around this…part of the saving good news…is recognizing that we all have instincts that didn’t evolve to serve us in the world of today that we have to live in. 

Burke: Yeah. 

Dowd: Our instincts evolved to serve us in that kind of world that our ancestors used to live in. For example, we all have cravings for sugar, salts and fats because for 99% of human history, it wasn’t easy to find sugars, salts and fats. 

Burke: Right. 

Dowd: So having a craving for those things allowed our ancestors to survive long enough to reproduce. Yet today, it’s very easy to find sugar, salts and fats…we still have these cravings; so it’s a mismatch between our cravings (our instincts for sugars, salts and fats) and the world of today that we have to navigate. 

Burke: So in a sense, they weren’t bad… 

Dowd: No!

Next time I’ll finish deconstructing this Science Fiction Christianity espoused here by Michael Dowd and Spencer Burke; in closing this, for now, l’ll leave you the following from former evolutionist Dr. Gary Parker, a professor of biology, who tells of a television show he saw while in Canada.

Dr. Parker remembers:

As the credits began to fade away the camera showed a medieval princess walking in a castle garden, and you could tell she was looking for something very special. The music begins to play softly, and then the camera slowly swings over to the edge of a little pond where a frog is sitting. As the princess hears the sound of the frog she moves over to the edge of the pond. She then bends down and kisses the frog, and stars sparkle all over the screen!

And from out of the stars steps this handsome prince. And, as the prince and the princess engage in an embrace, the narrator of the program walks into this idyllic scene and says: “If you believe a frog turned into a prince instantly, that’s a fairy tale. If you believe it took 300 million years–that’s evolution!”

This is offered as an appeal for you to awaken from the fairytale of evolution, as I commend to your attention—the Book to end all fables. And I urge you to consider the Book that has the ultimate happy ending—repentance and forgiveness of sins—eternal life through Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. That Book, is the Bible, and it has stood the test of time.

________________________________________________________________________________
Endnotes:

[1] http://michaeldowd.org/, accessed 10/09/10.

[2] Michael Dowd, Earthspirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity [Mystic: Twenty-Third Publications, 1991], 48.

[3] Ibid., 93.

[4] Michael Dowd, Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World [Council Oak Books, 2007], 108, 112.

[5] Ibid.,134.

[6] M. Basil Pennington, Thomas Keating, Thomas E. Clarke,  Finding Grace at the Center: The Beginning of Centering Prayer [Woodstock: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002], 10,11, emphasis mine.

[7] Dowd, Thank God, op cit., 139.

See also:

SPENCER BURKE: I’M A UNIVERSALIST WHO BELIEVES IN HELL

MICHAEL DOWD AND SCIENCE FICTION CHRISTIANITY

TOXIC THEOLOGY OF DOUG PAGITT

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION

BIG TENT CHRISTIANITY IS A POSTMODERN PROGRESSIVE LIBERALISM

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON OTHER RELIGIONS 

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON CHRIST