Biography
The Reverend Michael Dowd is a veteran sustainability activist and big history / big integrity evangelist. An enthusiastic and outspoken religious naturalist, he is the author of the bestselling bridge-building book, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World (Viking 2008 / Plume 2009), which was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and other science luminaries, including noted skeptics and atheists, and by religious leaders across the spectrum.
Michael and his wife, Connie Barlow, an acclaimed science writer and gifted evolutionary educator, permanently travel North America and have addressed more than 1,500 religious and non-religious groups since 2002—ranging from Unitarian Universalists and secular high school, college, and university students, to Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical Christian churches, to New Thought, New Age, IONS, and Integral groups. They show how the science-based history of everything and everyone can be interpreted in ways that inspire people to cooperate across political and religious differences in service of a just and thriving future for all.
In December 2010 Rev. Dowd hosted the acclaimed conversation series, “The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity,” and in June 2011 he and Connie launched a 5-week online course with Evolving Wisdom, titled, “Evolutionize Your Life.”
Celebrated by liberals and conservatives alike and uniquely gifted at building bridges between believers and non-believers, Michael shares “The Great Story” — humanity’s common creation story — in ways that uplift and expand heart, mind, and soul. His passion is showing how a sacred view of death, human nature, and the trajectory of big history can inspire and empower each of us to live with greater integrity, joy, and zest for life.
Michael and Connie are co-creators of the leading Religious Naturalism/Epic of Evolution educational website and they blog at www.EvolutionaryTimes.org.