An Evening with Michael Dowd

I had a wonderful evening last night at the home of Frances Osborn, of the Wildflower Unitarian Universalist Church in south Austin.  She knits, and has looms all over her house - you have to shimmy past a 6 foot long one to get to the bathroom.  The silk yarn on it right now is smoother than buttah.  And she was creating a sleeve next to me last night, as we listened to Michael Dowd, which is why I was in her home to begin with.  (By the way, she also served unsweetened tea - a treat for me, here in sweet-tea-Texas.  Thanks, Frances!)

But on to Dowd.  (Of course, I didn't get a picture - I still don't think about these things until I get home.  Besides, it's much more interesting to talk with someone, than to take their picture.)  

Dowd is a proponent of "evolutionary theology".  While I don't agree entirely with this philosophy, I do agree that his efforts are valuable.   He reaches out to religious people - people hungry to know more, people feeling discord with science and religion and wanting integrity, and even people hungry to fight him on anything evolutionary, no matter what his message.  

I like his word 'integrity'.  There's a moral value associated with the word which speaks of wholeness and peace, but I also like that it suggests integration.   Many militant athiests don't want to even allow for this path.  But I think at this time in our very young understanding of the universe, evolution and psychology, we must allow for it.  It's a valuable path at this time, and I'm glad he and Connie Barlow, his wife, are on it, and bringing others along with them.

Read his stuff here.