An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution: The Ebook

I have now published the 5th Ebook titled “An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution: A collection of articles promoting a positive relationship between Evangelical Christianity and evolutionary science” (click the link for free download). This is a collection of 23 of my posts and provides, I believe, a more-or-less cohesive account of my viewpoint as documented on the blog – “more-or-less” since, as astute readers will have noticed, some of my own ideas have evolved over the last couple of years. Note also that I use the adjective “cohesive”, and not “complete”, when describing my viewpoint; I too am still learning and there are several areas of this conversation that puzzle me as well.

Why this Ebook?
By gathering these particular articles together, I’m hoping that this Ebook can be helpful in several ways:

1. As a “conversation starter” for my fellow Evangelical Evolutionary Creationists who wish to discuss their viewpoints with other Evangelicals.

2. As a resource for Evangelicals wondering how they can integrate the findings of modern science with their faith

3. For those convinced that evolution is antithetical to faith, the Ebook will provide details on why I believe this conclusion is completely mistaken. I have two primary audiences in mind:

• Evangelicals struggling with (or considering abandoning) their faith because of the perceived conflict between that faith and the findings of modern science.
• Those considering making a commitment to the Christ, but who mistakenly believe they must ignore well supported scientific evidence to do so.
  

4. As a summary resource for readers who enjoyed the blog, but discovered it well after it was launched, and don’t have the time to wade through all of the old material.

Another Full Circle
As some of you may remember, for several years prior to the launch of my blog, I had been researching and writing an (ever longer) essay on evolution and its implications for my faith. However, the more I researched and wrote, the more I realized I was getting farther away from complete closure; one of those “one question answered, two questions raised” situations. When I discovered the blogosphere in the spring of 2007, I abandoned the essay and launched the blog to 1) provide a forum to share my thoughts and conclusions with other Evangelicals, and 2) to invite comments, criticism, and corrections from, as well as conversation with, other Evangelicals examining the science / faith interface.

Two years later I can say that my own spiritual and intellectual journey was significantly enhanced by the interactions with you my readers - I can’t thank you enough. And viola, to my own surprise, here is the resurrected essay – very, very, very different from the one I abandoned 2 years ago – but of course, that is what resurrections are.

Happy Easter.

All Four Blog Series now Available as Ebooks

All four series published here on this blog are now available in Ebook format. These include:

1. Evangelicals, Evolution, and Academics: The first Ebook I created and published on Tuesday. Note that there is a new revision available that includes some slight formatting changes (most notably the title page); the content is identical. Unfortunately the link I gave on Tuesday still points to the first revision (I think I have now figured out scribd’s revisioning system and have corrected the link in Tuesday's post) – so if you want the new revision with the formatting changes you will have to download it again from here.

2. The Social Psychology of the Origins Debate: The series of articles written by Marlowe C. Embree examining how our attitudes and beliefs are formed, how bias and prejudice affect our interaction with others, and how our thinking styles and personality profiles are important factors in how we make decisions, all within the context of the origins debate.

3. Evolution and Original Sin: A discussion on George Murphy’s paper Roads to Paradise and Perdition: Christ, Evolution, and Original Sin that included a summary of the paper by Murphy and responses by Terry Gray, Denis Lamoureux, and David Congdon . The series also includes Murphy’s replies to these responses as well as answers to reader questions.

4. Polkinghorne Quotes: My series of posts providing brief thoughts on quotes by theologian John Polkinghorne.

Fifth Ebook Coming
I plan to create one more Ebook, a compilation of posts that provides a more-or-less cohesive “story” of my own views and journey as documented on this blog. This might take some time though. While compiling the four Ebooks above was a relatively simple technical project, the fifth Ebook is going to take some thought and effort (ie. choosing what is included, arranging these posts thematically –eg. a simple chronological listing of the chosen posts probably wouldn’t work).

I am hoping that this fifth Ebook:
a) will be a helpful resource for Evangelicals struggling with the perceived conflict between their faith and the scientific evidence for biological evolution
b) can be used as a “conversation starter” for Evangelicals who hold an Evolutionary Creation position and want to share this with friends and colleagues and
c) will provide a nice summary of the blog for those who found it rather late, missed much of the first year’s discussion, but don’t want to dig though all 132 posts.

Of course, don't make any plans based on my commitment above (I am making no commitment on when it will be available). If you want to start reading a book now, or want to provide a recommendation to a friend, check out one of these ten books.

Blog E-books: Evangelicals, Evolution,and Academics series now available as PDF

For the record my blogging break is not really over (although I am taking a week off work during the March break). While I haven’t determined if, when, or how I will return to blogging, I have decided to make the best content from this blog available via thematic PDF files that can be shared with others (I have had requests for this in the past). I am not sure if my approach qualifies for the term E-book, but until someone corrects me, that is the term I’ll use. And since the best content on the blog may very well be the articles contributed by various guest posters, these guest contributions will be published first. The first E-book “Evangelicals, Evolution, and Academics” is now available as a PDF. This is simply a compilation of the 13 posts in the series of the same name published in the spring of 2008.

The E-book can be copied freely (within the limitations stated on the title page); in fact, I’m hoping that this will happen and that it will be helpful to Evangelicals in academia (or those just entering post-secondary education) who are surprised that the acceptance of biological evolution is even an option given their faith commitment. No, the series won’t provide a lot of the answers to the very difficult faith-science questions. However, it will provide pointers to other material that can provide those answers. And maybe most importantly, it will show that there are many Evangelicals who have reconciled their faith with biological evolution, and that academics can be an exciting, fulfilling, and faith-building enterprise.