Interview with Michael Dowd

The Reverend Michael Dowd, pro-future evangelist, and I talk shop and religious philosophy for almost an hour. Michael Dowd, author of “Thank God for Evolution,” has a refreshingly similar philosophy as I do: Nature is our primary access to ultimate Reality. If religion is an accurate and fruitful relation with Reality, being religious is living well in our bodies on our precious earth. Too much, religion in humanity directs us to afterlives and instead-of-lifes, to a distant and vague God instead of the “stuff” of God (or at least, this awesome creation) we’re made of. By affirming, celebrating, protecting, and advancing our human lives in and with our evolved ecosystem, we further the work of the Creator.

Originally published in 2017.  Update in 2024:

Years later, Michael has died.  I tried to listen to the interview and discovered the PodBean link didn’t work.  So I’m posting it directly from my file; hope it works.  (Egads! It does!)

Upon listening again I remember it as largely about my own story and religious philosophy, though Michael and I also talk pragmatic shop on our similar ministries.  I admired his “getting it done” ministry compared to my “I’d like to get it done.”  He did what I would have done if I were more skillful, diligent, and daring.   

That said, it is a good summary of my religious (and anti-religious!) story.  It’s worth a listen.  

“Rest in peace,” decent dude.  (I write as if he’s in the afterlife reading my website and listening to old interviews.)

A decent remembering of him can be accessed here: https://www.darkoptimism.org/2023/10/11/rest-in-peace-michael-dowd/

Links to his works can be accessed here: https://www.thegreatstory.org/who_we_are.html

Ongoing work in his name: https://postdoom.com/