BOB ABERNETHY: Now, Perspectives today on one man's view of the continuing struggle between religion and science. Sir John Polkinghorne is both a world-class physicist and an Anglican priest who says science can explain only part of what's real. Chris Roberts has our profile.

CHRIS ROBERTS: In a physics lab, a high-powered laser beam slices through a tank of water. For at least 400 years, the observations and tests of science, like a laser beam in turbulent water, have often churned through the teachings of religion. But now an eminent thinker on science and religion is casting new light on the controversy. He recently spoke at New York's Cornell University.

Sir JOHN POLKINGHORNE (Scientist and Theologian): Science and theology have enough in common to find a mutual conversation and indeed a mutual friendship between them.

ROBERTS: Sir John Polkinghorne is a British mathematical physicist knighted by the queen for his scientific achievements. But he resigned his prestigious post at Cambridge University and became an Anglican priest. He says that his intention was not to repudiate science, but to seek the wider truth of religion.

Sir POLKINGHORNE: Both science and theology believe that there is a truth to be found about reality. They believe there is a truth to be sought and as far as possible to be found. Never, of course, totally to be found either in science or in theology.

ROBERTS: In the 17th century, Galileo challenged all prior cosmology by proving that the Earth revolves around the sun. In the 19th century, Darwin challenged the biblical story of creation by teaching that all life had evolved. Sir John says many scientists came to think that only science could discern truth.

Sir POLKINGHORNE: They think that religious belief can only be purchased at the cost of intellectual suicide because they think that religious belief involves this unquestioning assent to incredible propositions.

ROBERTS: But Sir John believes that religion can explain things that science can't.

Sir POLKINGHORNE: Science is very successful and very important, and I want to take it very seriously. It's very limited also.

And it can tell you some things. And there are things that we need to know which science can't tell us about. Not just religion, but many other things as well. So I quite often say to my scientific friends, "What about music? What about music?"

If you ask a scientist as a scientist to tell you all that he or she can about music, they'll say it's vibrations in the air. And they can give you quite a very complete and exact account of the form of those vibrations. But we all know that that description, which is complete in scientific terms, has missed the whole mystery of music. Music is very, very much more than vibrations in the air. And so we have to have a wider view of reality that can embrace extra dimensions of music, which science, by its own choice, is unable to speak about. Religious belief is different from scientific belief in the sense that it involves the whole person. I believe passionately in the existence of quarks and gluons as smallest bits of matter. But that doesn't affect the way I live my life. I can't, however, believe in Jesus Christ without that affecting the way I live my life, as well as how I think about things. So, of course, religion is more overarching and more all-demanding than scientific belief can be.

ROBERTS: A poll taken 80 years ago showed that four out of 10 American scientists believed in God. That same poll was taken again last year. Surprisingly, after decades of scientific advancement, the results were virtually the same. Traditional beliefs had held steady.