America's Evolutionary Evangelists

"Public v. private revelation" and "day v. night language" are two distinctions Dowd has brought to religious audiences that have yielded tangible benefits in bridging the reason v. faith divide. In this podcast Dowd and Barlow reflect on their experiences with these key distinctions — notably, why and how these concepts move traditionally religious listeners to shed fears of embracing an evolutionary, evidential worldview. The independent discovery of species change by means of "natural selection" provides a timely historical example (given this 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species) of the foundational distinction between public revelation (Darwin's long honing of his idea) v. private revelation (the spark of insight itself gained by Wallace during a malarial fever). Link to the book chapter Dowd refers to: "A Story Big Enough to Hold Us All" and to Barlow's book chapter: "Evolution Now!"