Genesis for Biologists

I’m in the process of organizing a reading and discussion group on campus. The group will consist primarily of faculty from religion, biology and philosophy. Thus far, it looks like the inclination is to discuss the Genesis creation stories from an academic perspective, and hopefully provide the biology faculty with tools that can help them address concerns and questions that students sometimes bring to the science classroom because of their religious background.

I’m inviting readers to recommend books that offer a solid academic treatment of the Genesis creation stories, including information about and comparisons with other Ancient Near Eastern creation narratives. I’m also interested in books that discuss the theology of such stories, and perhaps other related passages in the Bible, in relation to our current scientific understanding of origins, biology, and human nature.

There are a number of books that I can think of that might fit these descriptions, but I suspect that there may be significant numbers of others, and so I’d welcome your suggestions and input. And if you have other suggestions about books that a group of academics in religion, philosophy and biology might find it interesting to read and discuss together, those are welcome too!

Thanks in advance for your input! As a token of my appreciation, here’s something for you – Richard Dawkins’ recent appearance on the Colbert Report. It is worth watching to the end, since in the final seconds they seem to have found a question that neither science nor religion can answer…