♦ "Soulful Science: Honoring Your Inner and Outer Nature"
How can a "soulful science" worldview help us live happier, more on-purpose lives and enjoy healthier, mutually enhancing relationships? What is an evidence-based approach to inspiration and how might we ensure that our legacy, individually and collectively, is a sweet one? These and other questions will be explored by America's evolutionary evangelist, Rev. Michael Dowd, whose bestselling, bridge-building book, Thank God for Evolution, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and by religious leaders across the spectrum.
Note: Dowd presented this theme in 2013 at Unity Church of Christianity (Houston, TX)
♦ "God's Back, Prophets Too: The Sacred Side of Science"
Michael Dowd shares the spiritual gifts of a mainstream evolutionary and ecological worldview, while highlighting the gravest cross-generational challenges of our time: human-caused climate change and excessive medical interventions that interfere with the natural process of elder death.
Note: Michael presented aspects of this topic in 2011 at Unity Center of Davis (CA), "Beware Idolatry of the Written Word", and in 2013 at First United Methodist Church of Boulder (CO), "God Is Back! (Prophets Too): Evidence As Modern-Day Scripture".
♦ "Ecology Is the New Theology"
"Ecology is the new theology," suggests Michael Dowd. "Big history is the new Genesis. Those who fail to understand that evidence is modern-day scripture, and that the world we live in is an honorable world, betray God and humanity in the most egregious of ways." (audio and video of 2013 sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe.)
♦ "Stone-Age Instincts / Space-Age Temptations"
An evolutionary worldview helps us face the fact that our Stone-Age instincts are now out of sync with modern temptations (fast food, feel-good substances, gaming, internet porn). Thanks to evolution, we learn that there is nothing to be ashamed of in admitting and seeking help in recovering from unhealthy habits that can plunge us into substance and behavioral addictions.
Note: Michael Dowd's 2012 TEDx talk, "Why We Struggle Now" includes the core material that constitutes this message.
♦ "Life, Death, and the Sacred Side of Science"
Coming to terms with death, of loved ones and ultimately of ourselves, has long been regarded as a core impetus for the religious impulse. We can now draw upon the sciences (from biology and paleontology to geology and astrophysics) to weave a cosmological celebration of death that is both realistic and comforting.
♦ "A Story Big Enough To Include Us All"
For the first time, an understanding of reality is emerging that draws on the talents and insights of individuals of all ethnicities, all religious traditions, and all regions of the globe. Thanks to the discoveries of modern science, we now have a story big enough to include us all. This sermon is based on Dowd's contributed chapter (by this title) in the 2010 edited volume, The Whole World Kin: Darwin and the Spirit of Liberal Religion (Skinner House Books, F. Muir, ed.).
♦ "Evolutionize Your Life"
AUDIO of 2010 sermon by this title, delivered by Dowd at Unity of Woodinville, WA
Michael Dowd demonstrates how a science-based, deep-time understanding of human nature, death, and the flow of Big History can transform lives, while offering a realistically inspiring vision of the future. Dowd's 2008 book, Thank God for evolution, has been endorsed by 6 Nobel laureates and other science lumininaries, including noted skeptics, and by religious leaders across the spectrum.
♦ "Gratitude: An Evolutionary Celebration"
Alternative title: "Deep-Time Guidance, Real-Time Gratitude"
AUDIO
of 2009 sermon by this title, delivered by Dowd at Unity of Bellevue, WA
Scientific discoveries are fascinating for revealing the magnificence of Earth and Cosmos, but can they also help us cultivate our spirituality? In this dynamic and soul-filled presentation, Rev. Dowd draws upon sciences as diverse as paleontology, astrophysics, geology, and evolutionary brain science to help us nurture a grateful heart.
♦ "Thank God for Evolution"
alt title: "The Epic of Evolution: Bridging Differences, Providing Guidance, Inspiring Hope"
AUDIO of 2008 sermon by this title, delivered by Dowd at Unity of Marin, CA
