In the battle of the bumper-sticker fish - Jesus fish vs. Darwin fish, or Jesus fish eating Darwin fish - Michael Dowd declares a victor.
The visiting American lecturer, who speaks next week in Victoria, has his own winning fish motif. It's a Jesus fish kissing a (Charles) Darwin fish, with little hearts blossoming between them. It adorns the side of the van driven by Dowd and his wife, science writer Connie Barlow.
"It gets us some interesting looks as we drive though conservative parts of the world," Dowd said on the phone from Seattle. "It got me flipped off the last time I was in Texas."
On Monday, Dowd kicks off a series of four lectures and workshops hosted by the United Church. The series is called Evolutionary Christianity and it's meant to examine science, religion and faith.
For Dowd, the kissing fish is his way of declaring his love for science, as in the demonstrable truths of Darwin's theory of evolution of species through natural selection, while still cherishing the word of ancient texts, such as the Bible.
"Every fact discovered by scientists simultaneously is a revelation from God," Dowd said.
"If you want to know what God is speaking, how reality is revealing truth today, you've got to look not at ancient texts but at what science is uncovering."
Dowd has written two books, Earthspirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity (1991) and Thank God for Evolution (2008). He and his wife now travel North America, lecturing and teaching.
Dowd says he knows both sides of the Bible vs. Darwin debate. Raised Roman Catholic, he had a born-again experience while in the U.S Army. For about three years after, he adhered to a fundamentalist Christian culture to the point of passing out religious tracts in the streets.
Later, while studying at university, he encountered what for him was a surprise - science lessons on evolution. He said he now knows evolution is taught respectfully at most Christian universities, including evangelical ones. But it was a revelation for Dowd.
He graduated with a master of divinity degree and became an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, overseeing congregations in Massachusetts, Ohio and Michigan. He also became attracted to the fields of ecology, sustainable living and social justice and later worked in Washington, D.C., and New York.
He said he has come to regard evolution as one of the world's greatest epic stories. "It helps us know who we are, where we are and how to serve society," he said.
Dowd also believes church leaders should embrace evolution, since it's an idea that's key to the healthy growth of religion.
"We've got to find ways for the religious tradition to evolve," he said.
"As long as people give privilege to ancient texts over current, measurable evidence in terms of divine communication and revelation, we are going to be in trouble."
Rev. Mark Green of the Cad-boro Bay United Church, who was chairman of the committee that worked to bring Dowd to Victoria, said he has come to see the evolution/Bible disagreement as a manifestation of two corrupting extremes.
For a start, the extreme positions are not accurate examples of what most people believe. Most Christians believe in evolution. Meanwhile, very few people hold to a strict atheist point of view.
The two extremes also distort what scientists and people of faith are really interested in, which is pursuing answers to questions.
"Both [science and religion] seek to explore questions that every time we get close to answers, we find that we have opened up even more questions," Green said.
"For me as a faith leader, what makes that exciting is to ask, 'OK, who are we as human beings, what is our possibility and where is God in the midst of all that?' " he said.
Dowd will speak Monday at St. Aidan's United, 3703 St. Aidan's St., from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $5 or $15 for the entire series on Evolutionary Christianity.
The following three Mondays will see a continuation of the series at other United Church parishes.
For more information, go to the First Metropolitan United Church website:
firstmetvictoria.com.
rwatts@timescolonist.com
