be<\/em>?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In that light, I like a cheeky comment from Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, a rather prolific author and an Anglican priest, as well as the former president of Queens College, Cambridge:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the physicists seem to achieve their ends more successfully than the theologians,\u201d he says, \u201cthat is simply a reflection of how much easier science is than theology.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clerical anti-intellectualism, you might say. \u00a0Anti-scientific religious obscurantism. \u00a0An obvious example of the warfare of religion against science.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, no. \u00a0Not very likely.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Polkinghorne is no enemy to science.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before he was ordained an Anglican priest relatively late in life, Sir John Polkinghorne was an internationally respected theoretical physicist. \u00a0For quite some time, he was\u00a0Professor of Mathematical Physics in the University of Cambridge. \u00a0He is a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and a Fellow of the Royal Society, the world\u2019s oldest independent scientific institution \u2014 more formally known as the\u00a0Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. \u00a0(Its membership has included such notable scientists and thinkers as John Dalton, Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren, Charles Darwin, Francis Crick, Joseph Priestley, Ernest Rutherford, Lord Kelvin, Michael Faraday, and Alexander Fleming.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are seeking to serve the God of truth,\u201d Sir John has written, \u201cthen we should really welcome truth from whatever source it comes. We shouldn\u2019t fear the truth. Some of it will be from science, obviously, but by no means all of it. It will sometimes be perplexing, how this bit of truth relates to that bit of truth; we know that within science itself often enough and we find it outside of science as well. The crucial thing is to be honest.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cOur solar system\u2019s formation was a lot messier than you think\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 This is a longish piece, I\u2019m afraid, but it\u2019s really quite interesting: \u00a0 \u201cHow Beauty Is Making Scientists Rethink Evolution:\u00a0The extravagant splendor of the animal kingdom can\u2019t be explained by natural selection alone \u2014 so how did it come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1706,2746,62,138,816],"class_list":["post-69331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christianity-and-science","tag-polkinghorne","tag-religion-and-science","tag-science-and-religion","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>