While reading "God after Darwin" last might I was struck by two things I had read: one was idea that rather than being "up there in heaven," God, in a process theology, might be considered to be "up ahead." In that view God would not be so much an all-powerful entity, but could be seen as a persuasive and inviting entity, calling all of creation foward to become whatever it is capable of becoming. And that view encompasses not just humans, but all of creation - the "stuff" of which we are all made, the living things that inhabit the cosmos, as well as "advanced" life, however one would like to understand that.

The other thing that hit me was a comment by Hought to the effect that materialistic thought envisions the physical cosmos as "all there is" and, since the end of it now seems to be one of thermodynamic death billions of years in the future. Hence, according to this line of thought, there is neither room for God nor hope to discover any "point to it all." What I thought as I read that was that it is more an indicator of the limitations of physical science than it is a prediction of what ultimate reality is all about. Science can see no purpose behind the material reality of the universe, but that does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that there is no purpose, only that science cannot be used to determine if there is purpose. And, then, what the parameters of that purpose might be. But then, see the previous paragraph about seeing God as calling all creation to its own completion - whenever and whatever that may entail.

And, there, I think, might be some significant room for dialogue between science and religion, if both sides will simply agree that neither side posesses "all truth."