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Useful science and faith resources
Here is a collection of the best of the science and faith resources I have found recently, including the best I can find that I disagree with (categorised in line with the colourful diagram - click to expand it). It's hard to avoid the bias of my own point of view, even though I have tried to take a fair view, so if you know of better sites, let me know.
Science and faith - evolutionary creationist point of view
Science and theology: exploring the nexus, a website with recommendations from NT Wright and John Goldingay, has the best set of links and summaries I've found to interesting and understandable scientific evidence and theology. Great quotations too.
Creation or Evolution: Do we have to choose? No! In this 2008 book biologist Denis Alexander argues that a committed Christian need not fear evolution but can embrace it as God's awesome means of creation. Reviewed recently in Christianity and Third Way magazines (and negatively on a young earth creationist website). The book has a very clear explanation of the latest evidence supporting evolution from his field of genetic research - I loved this though some might want to skip some of the science detail. And also the clearest attempt I've seen to deal with the Adam and Eve account in scripture and the implications of an evolutionary creationist way of thinking. Highly recommended.
The Language of God: A scientist presents evidence for belief by Francis Collins is an easier read and more of a story. Francis Collins, head of the human genome project describes his own journey from atheism to faith and gives a tour of modern science including much of the same DNA type science, but more briefly.
Tom Cameron recommends Can a Darwinian be a Christian? by Michael Ruse as "an excellent resource"
I've enjoyed reading a number of John Polkinghorne's books. John is a professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge and also an Anglican priest who has an evolutionary creationism viewpoint. The books assume you have some background in science. I'd recommend starting with Exploring Reality. His website is packed with concise answers to tons of questions - very helpful.
bethinking.org has a lot of essays on science and faith from evangelical Christian writers who mostly take an evolutionary creationism point of view.
Old Earth Creationism
The Evidence for God site has the clearest attempt I've seen at the Day-Age theory.
Young Earth Creationism
Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis site is one of the most well-known.
Intelligent Design
In God's Undertaker: Has science buried God, John Lennox tackles the major lines of argument in the science:faith debate. He argues that there are limits to what science can tackle and that there is evidence for a designer in the structure of the universe, biosphere, DNA and the sheer improbability of what we observe to exist. He argues against atheism and points out some of the limitations of evolutionary theory. A great book for anyone involved in the debate.
In Oct 2007 John Lennox and Richard Dawkins participated in a debate which is available on video which some have used (in sections) as the basis for a small group evening. Sciligion has helpfully noted down the structure of the debate - it isn't specifically about creation.
West Yorkshire School of Christian Studies (WYSOCS) over in Horsforth, Leeds is running a spring course and an autumn conference on Darwin and Design in 2009. This team is particularly good at pointing out worldview clashes with scientific materialism.
Atheism
Richard Dawkins' website is prolific in recording his activities and arguments, reviewing books etc.
His book The God Delusion has spawned numerous responses such as The Dawkins Delusion from Oxford theology professor Alister McGrath and Why there almost certainly is a God from Oxford philosopher professor Keith Ward.
In the media
The BBC is running two Darwin seasons in 2009 under the banner "The genius of evolution". Check out the previews and repeats on iPlayer. In particular Melvyn Bragg's 4 radio programmes on Darwin's life are highly regarded.
From the US, I've often enjoyed listening to Krista Tippett's "Speaking of Faith" podcast and that site has one of the few small-group discussion resources I could find.
Definitions
I find Wikipedia's definitions accurate and useful as a reference (e.g. Evolutionary Creationism/Theistic evolution, Young Earth Creationism, Gap Creationism, Day-Age theory, Literary framework interpretation).
Nature magazine did a special Evolutionary Gems article in January 2009 which summarises fifteen lines of evidence for evolution by natural selection.
Personal stories
The Creation of an Evolutionist blog documents the 2008 journey of someone from young earth creationism to evolutionary creationism. His earliest posts, the "Steps on the journey" in his sidebar tell the story and his recent commentary is very illuminating too.
Children's books
Wonderful earth, sadly out of print, is a book for younger children that describes the "in the beginning" story in a lovely way that allows the science and faith perspectives to be held together, even for the youngest kids.
Boring Bible: Ballistic beginnings is a very accessible series for the 8-11yr-olds but takes a Young Earth Creationist position in this particular book - the rest of the series is great. Evolve or die has a similar 'Horrible Histories' style and isn't too damning of the church compared to some accounts.
Church statements
Church of England: Good religion needs good science: some rapprochement between Darwin and Christian faith is essential - includes an apology to Darwin for the CoE's initial resistance to his ideas!
Borrowing these books
If budget is a challenge, some of them can be obtained from local libraries, or contact the office to arrange to borrow one of these books for a few weeks (and if you have some to lend, let the office know too).
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David Wallace, 07/02/2009 |
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| | | Duncan Meredith (Guest) | 06/02/2009 13:45 | It always amuses me when someone can prove "God doesn't exist", as he clearly does! - so what else don't they know? etc. I have also met Christians who are CONVINCED that God doesn't do miracles, there's no Holy Spirit etc. nowadays, and it can all be proved from the Bible. It all reminds me of the economist stranded on a desert island with only a tin of beans, who says "Let's assume we have a tin opener!" In other words, maintaining a fixed view in spite of the existence of evidence to the contrary won't wash!
This of course works both ways and it is just as bad to rubbish 'evolution' without considering the evidence and theories with an open mind. Guess what? The real truth may be beyond our understanding and such that no one really knows (or can we really grasp everything about God & creation and then write a book telling God where he's gone wrong?) However, I believe that we all have a responsibility to use the brains God has given us. The recommended books look great.
More importantly, as Christians we are told to 'make disciples of all men' and when considering what this means we should realise that it doesn't mean just winning arguments where we shout down the opposition but involves loving people as God does. OK, there is room for informed debate but the real key is 'knowing Jesus and making him known'. There really is more to life than winning scientific/political/philosophical arguments. God can look after his own reputation and won't we have more impact if we can lovingly demonstrate that we are aware & informed of important issues but still find our God to offer us an abundant life that we want to share with anyone who's interested? - cue Alpha!
| | | | Matt Button | 08/02/2009 18:03 | Thank you David for some really good talks - and for all the long hours and hard work it must have taken! I look forward to the "Would you adam and eve it?" talk...
| | | | Cyndy Dowling | 08/02/2009 19:44 | This morning on BBC1 the programme The Big Question at 10am one of the questions where can the bible and Darwin both be right. The programme can be watched on BBC i-player, it is quite intereting and demonstrates that bias on all sides. Lord Carey made a good contribution. Thank you David for an interesting thought provoking series.
| | | | Sally Wallace | 08/02/2009 21:18 | The fruit cake recipe (from this morning) is here - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2564/easy-apple-fruit-cake , except I used light muscavado sugar instead of dark, bramley apples instead of eating apples, and added 8oz of cherries (in addition to the 300g fruit)
I will be making one for Emily to auction, so if you liked it make sure you put in a bid!
| | | | Paula Noble | 09/02/2009 15:06 | wow sally.... science and cakes...good combination
| | | | David Wallace | 10/05/2009 15:34 | The Biologos foundation (including Francis Collins) has just built a website that seems to have well-written questions and answers about the evolutionary creationism point of view.
http://biologos.org/questions
| | | | David Wallace | 16/09/2009 16:20 | The film ‘Creation – The Movie’ will be released on 25th September, so the Darwin Debate is still a hot topic. As well as the resources mentioned above, there is also an interesting interview with Michael Reiss (who takes an evolutionary creationism point of view) in Christianity Magazine this month http://www.christianitymagazine.co.uk/features/michael%20reiss.aspx
And WYSOCS are running a conference at the end of October, largely from an intelligent design perspective I think, with details as follows:
The Darwin Debate: Does Intelligent Design offer Closure or Confusion? Day conference with Prof Tom Woodward (keynote speaker), Prof Andy McIntosh, Dr Philip Sampson, Dr Arthur Jones and Mark Roques. How should Christians respond? Date & Time: Saturday 31st October, 10.00 am to 4.45 pm Venue: Woodside Methodist Church , Outwood Lane , Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4HP. Cost: £20 (concessions £12, students £6) including sandwich lunch and refreshments. Further details from http://www.wysocs.org.uk/contact.php
| | | | David Wallace | 29/01/2010 10:00 | Was Darwin Right? is an evening with Prof Andy McIntosh at Roundhay Evangelical Church (Parochial Hall, Oakwood) 6.30-9.30pm Sat 5th June 2010. The two talks are
Design, Intelligence and the Word of God and
Fossils, Dinosaur bones and the Bible.
This is an opportunity to hear from an outspoken Young Earth Creationist who disagrees with the scientific consensus on biological evolution and believes the earth to be 6000 years old. See his wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_McIntosh_(professor)
I don't share his point of view, by the way, but as you know from the main article above, there are many interpretation perspectives, and Young Earth Creationism is quite popular, particularly in America. Even if you take a different view like me, it may be worth understanding the basis for this way of thinking.
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