In this age of uncertainty, fragmentation, and even despair, people yearn for certainty, but too often settle for adolescent polarizing, exclusivistic worldviews and understandings of reality that we see reflected in our time of penetrating globalization in tremendous political animosities, religious and ethnic warfare. The great 14 billion year Epic of Evolution, inspired by the telling of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, is a deep and coherent story which evokes meaning with an all-encompassing appreciation and wonder. It is a story which contains all stories, and which literally englobes all of the cosmos, excluding no one and nothing in creation. And in that way, illuminated by the "public revelation" of sciences from around the world in the last 300 years and ancient wisdom traditions, this Great Story - that matter, energy, and consciousness are one ongoing complexifying, unfolding, emergent process that we are all part of -- has the power to unite and deepen both science and religion in a new evolutionary worldview. It can unite peoples everywhere in a planetary identity, and orient us -- as cells do in a larger entity everywhere in nature -- to align our self-interest with that of our neighbors and the planet itself. Michael’s telling of his own transformative journey from his early years as a fundamentalist "evolutionary inquisitor" to his traveling the world now with his wife Connie Barlow as "evolutionary evangelists" is an enactment of this story. The big challenges of global warming, peak oil, the spread of terrorism, and the growing gap between the rich and poor, in this view are all seen as evolutionary catalysts, with a positive outcome we may create together in our lifetime.

More details on this episode go to http://www.personallifemedia.com/podcasts/living-dialogues/episode028-michael-dowd-the-epic-of-evolution.html