Conor Cunningham is a firm believer in the theory of evolution, but he is also a Christian. He believes that the clash between Darwin and God has been hijacked by extremists - fundamentalist believers who reject evolution on one side, and fundamentalist atheists on the other. Cunningham attempts to overturn what he believes are widely held but mistaken assumptions in the debate between religion and evolution.
He travels to the Middle East where he shows that from the very outset, Christianity warned against literal readings of the biblical story of creation. In Britain, he reveals that, at the time, Darwin's theory of evolution was welcomed by the Anglican and Catholic Churches. Instead, he argues that the conflict between Darwin and God was manufactured by American creationists in the 20th century for reasons that had very little to do with science and religion and a great deal to do with politics and morality.
Finally, he comes face to face with some of the most eminent evolutionary biologists, geneticists and philosophers of our time to examine whether the very latest advances in evolutionary theory do in fact kill God.
Philosopher and theologian Conor Cunningham
Note from Exec Producer, Jean Claude Bragard:
This programme, part of the BBC’s Darwin Season, came from the realisation that it would touch on issues raised by Richard Dawkins in his book 'The God Delusion'. The publishing phenomenon has fuelled a widespread perception that the theory of evolution makes belief in God redundant, even perhaps perverse. But how compelling was that argument? It was clear that many Christians have easily been able to reconcile their belief in God with the theory of evolution. How was this possible? This was the question we wanted to explore and so we invited Dr Conor Cunningham, a Christian but also an eminent philosopher and theologian from the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, to show how it was possible to believe in Darwin and God.
Cunningham has just completed a book 'Evolution: Darwin's Pious Idea' to be published in the autumn, so he was ideally placed to explore this question. His argument is that we have been witnessing an unnecessary cultural war between religion and evolution that is damaging to both religion and science. Cunningham reveals that since the early days, mainstream Christianity’s view of God and Creation has not been literal. The idea of reading the Book of Genesis literally is essentially a 20th century American phenomenon that had very little to do with science and religion and a great deal to do with the morality and politics of the time.
Jean Claude Bragard
Executive Producer
BBC Documentary "Did Darwin Kill God?" Aired March 31, 2009 on BBC2
NB: In this docomentary Richard Dawkins is being misquoted! Richard Dawkins does not argue evolution exclude a god.
An older comment from Richard Dawkins written to The Times How dare you call me a fundamentalist
3 comments:
I found this somewhat disagreeable.
The perspective taken in the film is that of the moderate Christian, which is arguably worse than the fundamentalist position. While the fundamentalists honestly believe the Bible is unquestionably the infallible work of God, the moderates pick and choose from the scriptures, adding in science as it's discovered in an attempt to seem relevant. I'd rather have the whole-hearted nonsense than the watered down version, which suckers people into giving them credibility where it really isn't due.
There are a number of problems with the content of the film; for example it is well documented that Darwin had ceased to be a churchgoing Christian long before his daughter got ill. Andrew Marr's first film on "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" (aired on the same channel!) gives a more accurate representation of Darwin's (non-)religious views.
Also note that the presenter's claim about his meme theory "rebuttal" not having being adequately refuted is plain ignorant. Both Dennett and Dawkins offer extensive explanations of meme theory which deal with such lame criticisms.
The ideas of Darwin are in no way compatible with theology. While Darwin looks to science and evidence, theology relies almost purely on fancy. Many people are yet to accept this, but it is only a matter of time before the strongest memes (no-god memes) oust the weaker ones (pro-god memes). Well, I hope that'll be the case; as Christopher Hitchens often says: "it's them or us!"
You are right GR.
This video is certainly not the best from BBC.
Here is all three parts of the Darwin's Dangerous Idea mini-serie:
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Body and Soul
Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Part 2: Born Equal?
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Life and Death
GR, allthough i do agrre with your view that fudamentalism is better than liberal theology. I object to you using rhe term 'nonsese' as you are stating your opinion as fact. And there is no definite proof that God exists or doesn't exist.
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