Is there an unbridgeable enmity between science(s) and religion(s) - or will they reconvene as in concepts of evolutionary theism? From the perspective of evolutionary studies of religion, that's less of a philosophical question than an empirical one. COULD it happen may be a question of fruitless speculation. But DOES it happen is a question of scientific observation.

And, of course, there have been eminent believing scholars in the field of evolutionary sciences from the very beginning of evolutionary theory. Many were able to bridge their scientific and religious convictions as e.g. the English co-discoverer of evolution Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913), the first female pastor of the USA (and a scientific author in evolution) Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825 - 1921), the German zoologist Gustav Jäger (1832 - 1908), the French Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin (1881 - 1955), the Russian biologist and devout Christian Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900 - 1975) right to contemporary geneticist Francis Collins and the folks at the BioLogos Foundation.

Nevertheless, one could be sceptical if such movements would remain a domain of a few intellectuals or if the message would begin to spill out to a wider public. Thus, I shared observations about the (Protestant) preachings of Michael Dowd's "Thank God for Evolution" as well as the increasing tendencies to relate evolution as a great and beautiful story with my readers. And these last weeks, some more assembled.

Avatar - Evolution & Religion

With his strong sense for mythology, James Cameron featured an Epic combining evolution and religion. From the naming of "Avatar" (the Hindu term for incarnating divinity), to the planet Pandora (originally a Greek mother goddess, pan-dora meaning the All-Giving) and the navi (a na'vi is a Biblical prophet, cp. the Quranic nabi), the movie is linking nature and religiosity. And it is the biologist Dr. Grace (!) Augustine (!) who is depicted as a sceptic "not believing in fairy tales", while she repeatedly refers to God (including her first words in the movie), finally finding transcendent reality through her biologically and culturally respectful, scientific inquiry. While the good guys are praying, loving and socializing, the bad guys are cynical materialists, laughing at spiritual traditions and measuring nature and live only in monetary value and violence. You might also want to check out the lines of the title song "I see you", teeming with terms as love, prayer, sacrifice and paradise. 

Will Religious Communities begin to Praise God for Evolution?

Oookay, so a multi-million-dollar movie orchestrated by a genius and depicting evolutionary theism hit a spiritual nerve. But we might still be sceptical if evolutionary messages could be adapted beyond books and movies, e.g. in communal prayers, praises and songs. But look what I just found by chance, an evolutionary-theist karaoke song by Keith Mesecher and the Cosmic All Stars.

Conclusion

Well, as a scientific observer of evolutionary studies and religious movements I dare to say: Something is happening here. Evolutionary theism is trickling down from the realms of intellectual theory into people's spiritual and religious cultures - and at the same time, it is emerging bottom-up by popular demand. And with the formulated, affirmative outlooks on faith, love and life, I would expect these movements to participate in the reproductive advantages (that is: higher birth rates) of older religious traditions, slowly enriching and transforming them. At the beginning of the 21st century, evolutionary theism is on the rise.