Saturday, July 12, 2008

Darwin's God Conversation: Follow up and Resources

We had a great time discussing the book this morning, a lot of interesting insights and comments. I wanted to follow up the discussion (and each future discussion) with a list of possible resources for further investigating the ideas discussed each month. Below is a list of some books/pamphlets/videos that I think could provide interesting further investigation into ideas surrounding evolution and faith. I'll try to include a variety of perspectives and ideas in these suggestions, but could use help from anyone with further suggestions too. Please add any of your own suggestions in the comments section.

Books
  1. "Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul" by Kenneth Miller. His newest book that was released just last month.
  2. "Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution" by Karl Giberson is a new release written by a professor at Eastern Nazarene University, sounds like it has a similar premise and purpose as Miller's book. An interview with the author can be viewed here.
  3. "The Edge of Evolution" and "Darwin's Black Box" by the notable ID proponent Michael Behe.
  4. "Reclaiming Science from Darwinism" by Kenneth Poppe, another proponent of ID.
  5. "Thank God for Evolution" by Michael Dowd popped up as a suggestion for me from Amazon, it also has a website that looks interesting (and a little hokey).
  6. "God After Darwin" and "Science and Religion" by John F. Haught a Catholic theologian at Georgetown University.
  7. "Random Designer" by Richard Colling another professor at a Nazarene school, this book has stirred up a little bit of controversy in the Nazarene church.
  8. "Evolution: What the fossils say and why it matters" by Donald Prothero looks at the fossil record and other evidence for evolution. I have an extra copy of this one if anyone is interested in borrowing it.
  9. "Your Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin is another recent book looking at a variety of paleontological, anatomical, and embryological discoveries in an attempt to understand several human medical issues through the lens of evolution. This book also provides a fantastic description of the method used for predicting the location and discovering fossils of intermediary species.

Videos

  1. "Judgment Day - Intelligent Design on Trial" is a PBS video describing the trial in Dover PA a few years ago. I own this one and am happy to loan it out.
  2. "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" the recent movie featuring Ben Stein in which he presents the argument that alternatives to evolution are unfairly discriminated against in academia and elsewhere.
  3. "Evolution: Fossils, Genes, and Mousetraps" and "Evolution: Constant Change and Common Threads" both available for free from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, or for loan from me, the first one features Kenneth Miller.

Pamphlet
Templeton foundation recently released a pamphlet discussing the question of "Does Science make belief in God obsolete?" in which a variety of public intellectuals have written essays to deal with the question, one of which was written by Ken Miller, I'd also recommend the essay by William D. Phillips. You can order a bound copy of all the essays for free or read PDF versions of each online at this link.

Hopefully you'll find some of these resources interesting and insightful, and hopefully you'll add other suggestions of items you've either read or saw and thought they'd look interesting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to say that it was a pleasure meeting with you guys last Saturday. Don't let my lack of input or participation persuade you to believe otherwise. I tend to keep quiet,unless I feel I have something new to add to the conversation. I really enjoyed the book (I have to admit it's the only book I have read on this subject)and found his ideas to be quite compelling. I look forward to future reads and our discussions that will follow.

Donnie Miller said...

Aaron,
Hey, I did a message on this topic in January of 07. I think one of the books on your list was a source I used, or at least one of the authors.
You can hear the message here:
http://www.trinityfamilyonline.com/sermon/can-christians-believe-in-evolution
I did make one family so mad they've never been back, told me, "I can't be in a church that believes in evolution. We take the bible literally."
I think I made them mad when I said (not picking on them, just using an example), "the way we manage our money says more about our view of scripture than what we think about the age of the world."