A third and final look back at the last 20 episodes: our “Origin and Evolution of …” series.

In this final episode of Season 3, we looked back a third time at the “Origin and Evolution of …” series of episodes that we started at the beginning of the year. That series was a deep-dive follow-up to a pair of episodes released a year and a half ago in which Dr. Chris Barrigar unpacked the central hypothesis in his then recently published book … Freedom All the Way Up: God and the Meaning of Life in a Scientific Age. His thesis was that God created the universe with the singular goal or purpose of producing agape-capable beings. In our 20 episode deep-dive, we brought in 17 scholars with PhD degrees in their respective areas of expertise on a spectrum ranging between science and theology/philosophy, the majority of whom call themselves Christians.

Judging by our weekly download numbers, our audience (drawn from 31 countries worldwide) seemed to be enjoying the on-going dialogue. They were quite OK with us looking at evolution on many levels  — stellar, planetary, geological, chemical and even biological in general (#63-71) — as reflected in a healthy weekly increase in our download numbers.

But there were two particular stages in our 20-episode journey which were a bit too unsettling for some of them.

As soon as we began talking about human evolution (#72-78), a very noticeable fraction of our audience ran straight for the exit doors. For them, humans evolving from hominid ancestors that we share with the chimpanzees/gorillas and the Neanderthals/Denisovans, and acquiring a wide range of myth/religion-making cognitive abilities, was just a step too far. We’re guessing these listeners were more on the conservative side of the spectrum of Christian faith.

The other very clear drop in our weekly download numbers occurred when we started looking closely at the divinity of Jesus, and Christianity being the one “true myth”, and the Resurrection being the evidence for these audacious claims (#81-85). We’re guessing these listeners were more on the skeptical or even atheistic end of that faith spectrum.

We’d be curious to hear your own reflection on the series of episodes. What points or guests stood out for you? What were the positive take-home points? Was anything unsavory for you?

We’re also curious about your recommendations for topics, themes and guests as we prepare for Season #4 (tentatively resuming in the Fall).

As always, tell us what you think …

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