Priest-Cosmologist Wins $1.6 Million Templeton Prize

New York Times ^ | 03/13/2008 | Brenda Goodman

[iowamark]

The $1.6 million Templeton Prize, the richest award made to an individual by a philanthropic organization, was given Wednesday to Michael Heller, 72, a Roman Catholic priest, cosmologist and philosopher who has spent his life asking, and perhaps more impressively answering, questions like “Does the universe need to have a cause?”...

Much of Professor Heller’s career has been dedicated to reconciling the known scientific world with the unknowable dimensions of God.

In doing so, he has argued against a “God of the gaps” strategy for relating science and religion, a view that uses God to explain what science cannot.

Professor Heller said he believed, for example, that the religious objection to teaching evolution “is one of the greatest misunderstandings” because it “introduces a contradiction or opposition between God and chance.”

In a telephone interview, Professor Heller explained his affinity for the two fields: “I always wanted to do the most important things, and what can be more important than science and religion? Science gives us knowledge, and religion gives us meaning. Both are prerequisites of the decent existence.”

Professor Heller said he planned to use his prize to create a center for the study of science and theology at the Pontifical Academy of Theology, in Krakow, Poland, where he is a faculty member....

On returning years later to Poland, where Communist authorities sought to oppress intellectuals and priests, Professor Heller found shelter for his work in the Catholic Church. He was ordained at 23, but spent just one year ministering to a parish before he felt compelled to return to academia....

The prize will be officially awarded in London by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in a private ceremony on May 7 at Buckingham Palace.

[betty boop]

Thanks MHGinTN! Will check it out!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your outstanding essay-post, dearest sister in Christ!

But Bacon misses something that Aristotle saw: that observation is limited precisely because we cannot see the whole, the context in which the visible/phenomenal things occur. As such, the scientific method as presently constituted is a very limited tool. I'm not saying it's not an important tool for the acquisition of human knowledge. But it is limited in the kinds of knowledge it can acquire, and therefore needs to be supplemented by other knowledge disciplines, preeminently philosophy and theology.

So very true and well said.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the recommendation!

[bezelbub]

Many scientists today claim that science can explain everything; which is in effect to say that the human mind, human reason is unlimited. But we know this isn't so.

Many? More than five? There is this Dawkins fellow...

But of course, most scientists never listen to philosophers telling them what they can do - and what they cannot.