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 ------- Austin Mennonite Church, (512) 926-3121 www.mennochurch.org To unsubscribe: use subject "unsubscribe" sent to amc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx