A much-trumpeted "marriage" of science and religion offers little more than a folksy sanctification of the secular, dressed up in God-speak. Chris Walley discovers a thickly disguised atheist tract.
Michael Dowd
Published by: Plume
Publication date: May 2009
ISBN: 978-0452295346
List Price: £7.99
410 pp
This book carries the intriguing subtitle ‘How the marriage of science and religion will transform your life and our world’. Both the title and the many pages of commendations are promising but I fear that many readers will find this a curious and frustrating work. The general tone is that of a religious book from the folksy American tradition: there are abundant references of ‘God’ , ’Gospel’, ‘salvation’, a self-help section and even short passages of testimony. Yet in reality this is an unashamedly atheist tract. After a complex theological pilgrimage, Michael Dowd has now come to hold beliefs which might be summarised as New-Age mysticism married to an outright atheism. Dowd makes it clear that, for him, God, in the traditional sense of a supreme personal being outside of the cosmos, doesn't exist: the only ultimate reality is the evolving universe. Where Dowd differs from other vocal atheists of our age that while they propose a secularisation of the sacred, he wishes to do the opposite and through a new evolution-based creation myth, produce a sanctification of the secular.
The actual scientific components of this book are relatively slender and are all drawn from existing popularisations. I was troubled by the fact that Dowd seems to see science primarily as raw material for his creation myth rather than truth in its own right. This may explain his surprising (and somewhat alarming) tolerance of young earth creationism.
Notwithstanding the many commendations of this book, two major criticisms can be made. The first is specific and theological. Dowd is damning of many aspects of religious belief, terming them ‘flat-earth thinking’ or ‘night language.’ Unfortunately the criteria for such negative features seem to be simply that these are things he doesn't agree with. Christians with any sort of traditional belief will find Dowd's ruthless reinterpretation of the faith unacceptable. To take merely one example, whatever the Cross means, it is not ‘the path of vertical integrity.’ Although Dowd only briefly engages with other faiths, we can be reasonably certain that he will not be touring Saudi Arabia in the near future.
The second criticism is general and logical. In this book Dowd takes post-modern liberties with language. Words, especially theological ones, are used without any regard for their meaning so that although God does not exist, ‘God language’ continues to be used. So we find a dedication to ‘the glory of God’, enthusiastic references to the ‘sacred evolutionary perspective’ and ‘the Gospel according to evolution’. Here we must surely protest. Words have to have meanings; although theological language may be frustratingly imprecise, it means something. Having rejected the concept of a supernatural god, you surely cannot talk of the universe as a product of ‘divine grace and creativity’, mention a ‘Holy Trajectory of Evolution’ or even give ‘thanks to God’. This book holds out the tantalising promise of a rapprochement between science and faith. Unfortunately the price it demands, the sacrifice of language and meaning, is too high.
Dr Christopher Walley
Swansea