Faith, Reason and the Templeton Prize

By Hasan Zillur Rahim

The 2007 Templeton Prize “For Progress toward Research or Discoveries about
Spiritual Realities” was recently awarded to the Canadian philosopher
Charles Taylor for his insights into the nature of the secular and the
sacred and how one without the other can be perilous for mankind. “The
divorce of natural science and religion has been damaging to both,” he said,
“but it is equally true that the culture of the humanities and social
sciences has often been surprisingly blind and deaf to the spiritual.” The
75-year old McGill University emeritus professor has called for new insights
into the human propensity for violence, one that also takes “full account of
the human striving for meaning and spiritual direction, of which the appeals
to violence are a perversion.”

The American philanthropist John Templeton created the annual prize in 1973
to recognize research in spirituality and its possible confluence with
science. He made it the most lucrative prize in the world – at more than
$1.5 million, it is larger than the Nobel Prize – to emphasize that we are
shaped more by our spiritual longings than by any other factor, and
therefore advances in the understanding of spirituality should also begat
more attention and recognition. (Given the 72 years headstart the Nobel had
over the Templeton, this may take a while!)

Of late, religion, spirituality and God have been under assault by militant
secularists whose ranks include prominent scientists. Leading the charge is
Richard Dawkins, professor of public understanding of science at Oxford
University. His book, “The God Delusion,” has been on the best-seller list
for several months now. Dawkins suffers from no shades of gray. God is
unnecessary, he says, because science (evolution, randomness, physical laws
and such) can explain everything. If anything does lie beyond the scope of
science, it has no meaning and is therefore irrelevant. His intellectual
fellow-travelers include the neuroscientist Sam Harris (“The End of Faith:
Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason”) and Tufts University philosopher
Daniel Dennett (“Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.”)

For every atheist or agnostic scientist or philosopher, however, there are
at least a hundred who are passionate about their faith or at least open to
the possibility of a Supreme Being. One such is the geneticist Francis
Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, who led
the successful effort to complete the Human Genome Project, a
multidisciplinary enterprise to map and sequence the human DNA. Collins
refutes Dawkins by asserting that God lies beyond the reach of science,
beyond space and time, and so cannot be explained by science. God used His
creative power to bring all creation into being. If we keep an open mind, we
can study God’s handiwork in the signs He has strewn about us, from the
large-scale drama of the universe to the intricate world of sub-atomic
particles.

What Collins says summarizes the beliefs of many scientists. The Muslim
astrophysicist Bruno Guiderdoni, for instance, draws inspiration from his
faith in his research on galaxy formation. The fundamental mystery that
animates physics and cosmology, he believes, is that the world is
intelligible. “The Quran strongly recommends that we ponder and meditate
upon the Creation to find the traces of the Creator in its harmony.” The
Nobel physicist Abdus Salam (1979) found in his faith the inspiration to
delve into the mysteries and symmetries of fundamental particles. A list of
recent Templeton Prize winners also illustrates the point: physicist Freeman
Dyson (2000), chemist Arthur Peacocke (2001), mathematical physicist John
Polkinghorne (2002), applied mathematician George Ellis (2004), Nobel
physicist Charles Townes (2005) and mathematician John Barrow (2006). They
were cited not for their scientific or mathematical discoveries but for
their efforts to show in their distinctive ways that science and religion
are two windows that look out on the same universe.

If scientists can be inspired by their faiths, can theologians and religious
leaders be inspired by science? Certainly, and one example will suffice. In
his book “The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and
Spirituality,” the Dalai Lama writes eloquently about his fascination with
science from an early age “It was not very long before the colossal
significance of science for humanity dawned on me - especially after I came
into exile in 1959. There is almost no area of human life today that is not
touched by the effects of science and technology.” Yet he warns of the
danger of trying to accommodate within a purely scientific worldview answers
to questions such as the meaning of life or good and evil. “The problem is
not with the empirical data of science but with the contention that these
data alone constitute the legitimate ground for developing a comprehensive
worldview or an adequate means for responding to the world’s problems … By
the same token, spirituality must be tempered by the insights and
discoveries of science. If as spiritual practitioners we ignore the
discoveries of science, our practice is also impoverished, as this mindset
can lead to fundamentalism.”

The Templeton prize celebrates those who seek to reconcile the ancient
adversaries of science and religion by confronting difficult questions
head-on such as those raised by Darwinian atheists and religious
fundamentalists, thereby discovering insights that can help make the world a
better place for people of all creeds and color. It celebrates the middle
ground between the dispassionate observer and the devout believer,
suggesting that the two can be fused into one for a full and creative life.