Science and Religion: the Templeton Prize Winner [View All]

[kwassa]

I heard an interview with Townes the other day on NPR about winning this particular prize.


NEW YORK, MARCH 9 - Charles Townes, the Nobel laureate whose inventions include the maser and laser and who has spent decades as a leading advocate for the convergence of science and religion, has won the 2005 Templeton Prize. The prize, valued at more than $1.5 million, was announced today at a news conference at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York.


The purpose of the Templeton prize:

http://www.templetonprize.org/purpose.html

excerpt:
How might humankind's spiritual information and advancement increase by more than a hundredfold? This is the challenge presented by the Templeton Prize. Just as knowledge in science, medicine, cosmology and other disciplines has grown exponentially during the past century, the Templeton Prize honors and encourages the many entrepreneurs trying various ways for discoveries and breakthroughs to expand human perceptions of divinity and to help in the acceleration of divine creativity.

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Instead, this award is intended to encourage the concept that resources and manpower are needed to accelerate progress in spiritual discoveries, which can help humans to learn more than a hundredfold more about divinity. We hope that by learning about the lives of the awardees, millions of people will be uplifted and inspired toward research and more discoveries about aspects of divinity. The Prize is intended to help people see the infinity of the Universal Spirit still creating the galaxies and all living things and the variety of ways in which the Creator is revealing himself to different people. We hope all religions may become more dynamic and inspirational.


here is Townes complete bio:
http://www.templetonprize.org/bios.html

excerpt:

Townes has solidified his leadership role in the dialogue at the boundary of science and religion with the publication of many papers, including “Science, values, and beyond,” in Synthesis of Science and Religion (1987), “On Science, and what it may suggest about us,” in Theological Education (1988), and “Why are we here; where are we going?” in The International Community of Physics, Essays on Physics (1997).

The American Institute of Physics Press published a collection of his writings, Making Waves, in 1995, and his book, How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist, a personal story illustrating the sociology of science and discovery, was published to great acclaim by Oxford University Press in 1999.

His lectures, too, have kept him at the forefront of the discussion. Most recently, he delivered the keynote address, “Do science and religion converge?” at the Second World Congress for the Synthesis of Science and Religion in Calcutta, India in 1997, and the lecture, “The Convergence of Science and Religion,” at the annual UNESCO meeting in Paris and at the American Scientific Affiliation annual meeting at Pepperdine University in California in 2002.