I don’t believe in God. There we go. That didn’t take long, and didn’t need much lubrication. I’ve got it down to something of an art these days. Get it out there, and let the consequences flow. Fortunately, I live in post-Christian Britain and not Bible Belt Arkansas, so there aren’t too many consequences for me.

Keith Miller is a geologist and Kansas State University. He’s involved with a Christian group called the American Scientific Affiliation, and also with the Affiliation of Christian Geologists. He’s an evangelical geologist who believes in evolution, and believes that science is “a Christian vocation, and part of that vocation is using scientific knowledge to deepen our understanding of God and of our calling as Creation’s stewards”. He believes, as I do, that the debate over evolution and creationism (or it’s learned-sounding brother, Intelligent Design) is “often fruitless and divisive”.

The book sets out to “provide a wide-ranigng and authoritative evaluation of evolutionary theory from those with an orthodox Christian perspective”. And it succeeds. I’m not a theologian – in fact, I shudder at the thought – but this is theology that is informed and informative.

For instance, the dismissal of the Intelligent Design Movement (IDM) consists of the citing of Ken Miller’s book refuting many of Behe’s arguments, and then pointing out the theological limitations of Intelligent Design using Howard J. Van Till’s arguments, as well as pointing out some of the more fundamental flaws with such a proposal. These theological differences are often glossed over in the rush to build consensus by the IDM’s “Big Tent” approach, which is based supposedly on theological consensus, but actually appears to be based upon conensual opposition to secular bogeymen (Theistic Evolutionism being such a bogeyman).

The book puts pay to the argument that “all American evangelicals are as sharp as cotton wool”. Keith Miller’s contributions are informed and refer to decent source materials in both his field, other scientific fields, philosophy and theology.

In between the main chapters, there are a number of little interludes, which discuss science and theology in a sermon-like manner. These are neither overbearing nor fanatical. They look outwards and upwards, pointing out the sublime beauty of nature and God. This is a God that even a jaded old atheist like me could worship, because his followers aren’t breathing down my neck or threatening me with eternal flames, but asking us to step in to fellowship. Very poetic!

Sorry, but you’re not getting me that easy. The problem of evil still applies, and I just can’t stand church pews. Richard Dawkins’ publishers, with a recent book of his, must have had great fun choosing to put quotes by bishops on the back of the book. It must have been even more pleasing that they were in fact quite complementary of said book. The Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, who wrote a fantastic book on morality a number of years ago, wrote of Dawkins’ efforts: “This is the best book of sermons I have read for years. So please go on preaching to us, Reverend Dawkins, and odn’t mind the things they throw at you. After all, prophets always get stoned”. (I particularly like the double meaning in the last sentence, since on my next trip to Amsterdam, I’m going prophetic class on the Eurostar).

The religious have praised an old-fashioned Darwinian atheist. Now, it’s my turn to reciprocate. This book raises numerous interesting questions, and doesn’t, like many, shy away from exploring their controversial nature. It takes it’s science as seriously as it’s theology, without falling in to the easy traps which the fellow believers of the great faith criticise it for. Miller’s compliation is readable, interesting, and profoundly sensible. And in a world where America’s religious nuts are out there confusing lumps of wood and grilled cheese sandwiches with the presence of both the Lord Almighty and his virginal mother, worshipping at the altar of charismatic nutcases with shiny suits and freephone numbers, where every scrap of secular culture has it’s home-brewed religious equivalent served up in such a way to take away from the profoundly difficult task it is to be a Christian – a task which Kierkegaard described in Fear and Trembling by looking concretely at the story of Abraham.

Miller’s enterprise is positively necessary in a culture rife with scientific and religious illiteracy (according to a survey conducted a while back, 12% of professed American Christians thought that Noah was married to Joan of Arc, and a huge number couldn’t name any of the Gospel writers). The contributions are, as Miller states, “well-informed and thoughtful integrations of science and faith that respect the authority of Scripture and the integrity of the scientific enterprise”. If you buy faith, read this and a decent biology textbook. If you don’t buy faith, read this – it’ll deepen your understanding of the “conflict”.