[amc] Top religion prize to math prof
- From: wseverin1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Werner J. Severin)
- To: amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:43:40 -0500
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/science/16prize.html?
pagewanted=print
March 16, 2006
Math Professor Wins a Coveted Religion Award
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Continuing a recent trend in which the world's richest religion prize
has gone to scientists, John D. Barrow, a British cosmologist whose
work has explored the relationship between life and the laws of
physics, was named the winner yesterday of the 2006 Templeton Prize
for progress or research in spiritual matters.
Dr. Barrow will receive the $1.4 million prize during a ceremony at
Buckingham Palace on May 3. The prize was created in 1972 by the
philanthropist Sir John Marks Templeton, who specified that its
monetary value always exceed that of the Nobel Prize. Five of the
last six winners have been scientists. Asked about this, Dr. Barrow
said, "Maybe they ask the most interesting questions."
Dr. Barrow, 53, a mathematical sciences professor at the University
of Cambridge, is best known for his work on the anthropic principle,
which has been the subject of debate in physics circles in recent
years. Life as we know it would be impossible, he and others have
pointed out, if certain constants of nature ó numbers denoting the
relative strengths of fundamental forces and masses of elementary
particles ó had values much different from the ones they have,
leading to the appearance that the universe was "well tuned for
life," as Dr. Barrow put it.
In a news release, the prize organizers said of Dr. Barrow's work:
"It has also given theologians and philosophers inescapable questions
to consider when examining the very essence of belief, the nature of
the universe, and humanity's place in it."
Dr. Barrow is the co-author of "The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle," a primer on the subject, as well as 16 other books, more
than 400 scientific papers, and a prizewinning play, "Infinities."
Asked about his religious beliefs, Dr. Barrow said he and his family
were members of the United Reformed Church in Cambridge, which
teaches "a traditional deistic picture of the universe," he said.
Noting that Charles Darwin is buried in Westminster Abbey, Dr. Barrow
said that in contrast with the so-called culture wars in America,
science and religion had long coexisted peaceably in England. "The
concept of a lawful universe with order that can be understood and
relied upon emerged largely out of religious beliefs about the nature
of God," he said.
Werner J. Severin
3108 Silverleaf Drive
Austin, Tx. 78757-1611
(512) 452-5080
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Austin Mennonite Church, (512) 926-3121 www.mennochurch.org
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