The Spiritual Journey of Homo Sapiens
My second presentation will draw from the new book I'm writing. It asks the question, "How did we become the kind of creatures who are capable of moral responsibility and love?". I'll work through several key developments in our evolutionary history -- bipedal walking, language, culture -- and claim two things about these: 1) they are rooted in related to the capacities of other creatures; they didn't come from nowhere. But 2) in the human context they have become something more. I'll connect this to the doctrine of the image of God and suggest that our spiritual journey as a species is not over yet.
Jim Stump is a philosopher by training and has been working in the fields of philosophy of science and the interaction between science and religion. Since 2013 he has worked for BioLogos -- the Christian non-profit organization started by Francis Collins. He is the host of their podcast "Language of God" and oversees their programs. He is the author or editor of eight books, including The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity; How I Changed My Mind About Evolution; Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design; and most recently, The Sacred Chain: How Understanding Evolution Leads to Deeper Faith.
