Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . NEWS . 2002 Templeton Prize . March 15, 2002 | PBS

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2002 Templeton Prize
March 15, 2002 Episode no. 528

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BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: The relationship between science and religion is one of the top interests of the John Templeton Foundation, which has just announced the winner of this year's Templeton Prize of nearly a million dollars.

He is Dr. John Polkinghorne, an Anglican priest who for many years was a distinguished mathematical physicist at Cambridge University in England. Then he switched careers in mid-life and was ordained. He has written extensively on science and religion.

Dr. Polkinghorne joins us now from New York. Welcome and congratulations.

Rev. John C. Polikinghorn

Rev. John C. Polikinghorn

Reverend Dr. JOHN POLKINGHORNE (2002 Templeton Prize Winner): Thank you very much.

ABERNETHY: Science is so powerful some people assume that sooner or later the study of the material world will explain everything else, including the truths of religion. How do you respond to that?

Dr. POLKINGHORNE: Well, I don't think that's correct. I think science is successful because it only asks certain types of questions -- how things happen. So there are only types of experiences, essentially impersonal experiences. We even put things to the experimental test.

Rev. John C. Polikinghorn and Bob Abernethy

Rev. John C. Polikinghorn and Bob Abernethy

ABERNETHY: You have said you have no problem accepting such ideas as the Big Bang and evolution. But let me ask you about some other things. We just had a story here about research on the brain. Do you think science will someday explain spiritual experience and prayer?

Dr. POLKINGHORNE: I don't think so. Of course, because we are human beings and because we have bodies, our spiritual experiences will have reflection in things that go on in our brain -- just as our scientific experiences have reflections on things that go on in our brains. But I don't think that explains those experiences and understandings away, either for science or for religion.

ABERNETHY: Since September 11th, many Americans have sought explanations for pain and suffering and evil. As a scientist and as a Christian, how do you explain those things?

Dr. POLKINGHORNE: Well, of course there are great perplexities about the evil and suffering in the world. But I think it helps us to realize that God has brought into being a creation to which God has given the gift of freedom. The world is not God's puppet theater in which God makes everything happen. Creatures are free to be themselves, to make themselves, and to make their own decisions. So that means that things will happen that are contrary to God's will. I don't think that God wills either the act of a murderer or the incidence of a cancer, but God will allow both to happen in a world over which He doesn't keep tight and strict control.

ABERNETHY: Dr. Polkinghorne, what are you going to do with nearly a million dollars?

Dr. POLKINGHORNE: Well, I hope to use it to support further work in science and religion. It's a flourishing area at the moment, and there are very talented young people coming to work in the area. Many are doing Ph.Ds., and I'd like to provide them with some support for post-doctoral work because that's when, I think, really fruitful things happen. That would take place in Cambridge, which is a good center for doing these things.

ABERNETHY: Dr. Polkinghorne, many thanks. It's good to talk to you. Dr. John Polkinghorne, the 2002 winner of the Templeton Prize. Until this year, the prize was for Progress in Religion. Now there is a new name: the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Reality.

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	Read an excerpt from John Polkinghorne's newest book.

	Related Links: The Official Rev. John Polkinghorne Website Templeton Prize New York Review of Books: "Science and Religion: No Ends in Sight" by Freeman Dyson, March 28, 2002 Cross Currents: "Divine Action: An Interview with John Polkinghorne" by Lyndon F. Harris Center of Theological Inquiry: "God in Relation to Nature" by John Polkinghorne, 1998 Yale University Press: "The God of Hope and the End of the World" by John Polkinghorne A SELECTION OF BOOKS BY JOHN POLKINGHORNE (with summary comments by him): THE PARTICLE PLAY ("Particle physics for the common reader.") THE QUANTUM WORLD ("The ideas of quantum theory presented to the non-scientist.") ROCHESTER ROUNDABOUT ("A personal memoir of my life and times in particle physics.") BEYOND SCIENCE ("Physics in a wider cultural setting, including some reminiscences of famous physicists I have known.") THE WAY THE WORLD IS ("The first book I wrote on science and religion.") ONE WORLD ("Science and theology interacting in the context of the unity of knowledge.") SCIENCE AND CREATION ("Hints of a Creator from the deep intelligibility and finely-tuned fruitfulness of the universe.") SCIENCE AND PROVIDENCE ("Does God act in the world, and can a scientist pray?") REASON AND REALITY ("To defend theology as a rational activity in the search for motivated belief.")

	SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF (Based on the 1993 Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh.) THE FAITH OF A PHYSICIST ("It takes the phrases of the Nicene Creed and mounts a defense of the rationality of believing them to be true. A central topic is the resurrection of Christ.The book is subtitled "Theological Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker." I use this description of myself because I believe that the best way of motivating belief is to move from experience to understanding, a technique that we use in science and which is also applicable to theology. The world is surprising and scientists do not think that they know beforehand what form reason must take. They do ask, however, the right question, which is "What is the evidence that persuades you that this is true?") SCIENTISTS AS THEOLOGIANS ("Surveys the writings of three scientist-theologians: Ian Barbour and Arthur Peacocke [both Templeton Prize winners] and myself. We have many things in common, but there are also significant differences. I see myself as allowing theology to set more of the agenda for the conversation with science than is the case with my two colleagues.") QUARKS, CHAOS AND CHRISTIANITY ("Seeks to survey the science and religion scene in a way easliy accessible to the average reader") SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY ("A survey of the field but treated in a more academic fashion. It is based on an introductory course I have taught at a seminary in New York.") BELIEF IN GOD IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE ("Based on the Terry Lectures at Yale. It explores a number of analogies between scientific and theological ways of reasoning.") FAITH, SCIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING ("Includes two chapters devoted to the question of God's action in the world and its relation to the scientific account of its process.") FAITH IN THE LIVING GOD ("A joint dialogue book written with German theologian Michael Welker.") SEARCHING FOR TRUTH ("A book of short daily meditations for Lent.") THE END OF THE WORLD AND THE ENDS OF GOD edited by John Polkinghorne and Michael Welker QUANTUM THEORY: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION ("Quantum ideas without any equations." Forthcoming in May from Oxford University Press.)