The C of E (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
Vanished user 2345 (talk | contribs) removed WP:UNDUE criticism section; the section is basically just a handful of atheists whining that Polkinghorne would dare to be a Christian; how is this encyclopedic? |
||
Line 74: | Line 74: | ||
Following the resignation of [[Michael Reiss]], the director of education at the Royal Society—who had controversially argued that creationism be taught in schools<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7619670.stm 'Creationism' biologist quits job], BBC News, 16 September 2008.</ref>—Polkinghorne argued in ''The Times'' that there is a distinction between believing in the mind and purpose of a divine creator, and what he calls creationism "in that curious North American sense," with a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 and the belief that evolution is wrong, a position he rejects.<ref>Polkinghorne, John. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4790446.ece Shining a light where science and theology meet], ''The Times'', 19 September 2008.</ref> |
Following the resignation of [[Michael Reiss]], the director of education at the Royal Society—who had controversially argued that creationism be taught in schools<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7619670.stm 'Creationism' biologist quits job], BBC News, 16 September 2008.</ref>—Polkinghorne argued in ''The Times'' that there is a distinction between believing in the mind and purpose of a divine creator, and what he calls creationism "in that curious North American sense," with a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 and the belief that evolution is wrong, a position he rejects.<ref>Polkinghorne, John. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4790446.ece Shining a light where science and theology meet], ''The Times'', 19 September 2008.</ref> |
||
===Criticism of Polkinghorne=== |
|||
The British philosopher [[Simon Blackburn]] criticizes Polkinghorne for primitive thinking, and for using rhetorical devices instead of engaging in philosophy. For example, Polkinghorne argues that the minute adjustments of cosmological constants on which life on earth depends begs for an explanation that goes "beyond the scientific." Blackburn argues, following [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] and [[David Hume|Hume]], that this relies on a natural preference for explanation in terms of agency, and necessitates what Blackburn calls truly spectacular leaps of understanding about the mind of a designer that requires no birth, nurture, language, culture, or physicality. Blackburn's position is that, in order to develop, science had to move beyond this kind of primitive thinking. He wrote that he finished Polkinghorne's books, with their "supreme contempt for philosophical reasoning and historical thinking," in despair at humanity's capacity for self-deception.<ref>Blackburn, Simon. [http://www.powells.com/review/2002_08_01.html An Unbeautiful Mind], a review of John Polkinghorne's ''The God of Hope and the End of the World'', ''The New Republic'', 1 August 2002.</ref> |
|||
[[Richard Dawkins]], formerly [[Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science|Professor of Public Understanding of Science]] at Oxford, |
|||
writes that the same three names of British scientists who are also sincerely religious crop up with the "likeable familiarity of senior partners in a firm of Dickensian lawyers": [[Arthur Peacocke]], [[Russell Stannard]], and John Polkinghorne, all of whom have either won the Templeton Prize or are on its board of trustees. Dawkins writes that he is not so much bewildered by their belief in a cosmic lawgiver, but by their beliefs in the minutiae of Christianity, such as the resurrection and forgiveness of sins, and that such scientists, in Britain and in the U.S., are the subject of bemused bafflement among their peers.<ref>Dawkins, Richard. ''The God Delusion'', Houghton Mifflin Co, 2006, p. 99.</ref> Polkinghorne says that debating with Dawkins is hopeless, because he doesn't give an inch,<ref name=Reisz/> and writes in ''[[Questions of Truth]]'' that he hopes Dawkins will be a bit less baffled once he reads it.<ref>{{cite_book |first=John|last = Polkinghorne |authorlink=Richard Dawkins |date=2009 |title=[[Questions of Truth]] |isbn = 978-0-664-23351-8 |pages=29 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |location=Louisville, Ky.}}</ref> The philosopher [[A.C. Grayling]] criticized the Royal Society for allowing its premises to be used for the launch of ''Questions of Truth'', describing it as a scandal, and arguing that Polkinghorne exploited his fellowship there to publicize a "weak, casuistical and tendentious pamphlet." Grayling argues that the "superstitious lucubrations of illiterate goatherds living several thousand years ago" must not be given the same credibility as contemporary scientific research.<ref>Grayling, A.C. [http://newhumanist.org.uk/1998 "Book Review: Questions of Truth: God, Science and Belief by John Polkinghorne and Nicholas Beale"], ''New Humanist'', Volume 124, Issue 2, March/April 2009.</ref> |
|||
==Bibliography== |
==Bibliography== |
Revision as of 20:01, 16 June 2010
Sir John Polkinghorne | |
---|---|
Born | Weston-super-Mare, England | 16 October 1930
Nationality | British |
Education | MA mathematics (1952), PhD physics (1955) |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Occupation(s) | Physicist, priest, writer |
Known for | Particle physics; relationship between science and religion |
Spouse | Ruth Martin |
Children | Peter (1957), Isobel (1959), and Michael (1963) |
Parent(s) | George Polkinghorne and Dorothy Charlton |
Relatives | Peter (brother, died 1942) and Ann (sister, died 1930) |
Awards | Templeton Prize, KBE, FRS |
Sir John Charlton Polkinghorne KBE FRS (born 16 October 1930) was Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1979, when he resigned his chair to study for the priesthood, becoming an ordained Anglican priest in 1982. He served as the president of Queen's College, Cambridge from 1988 until 1996.
Polkinghorne is the author of five books on physics, and 26 on the relationship between science and religion; his publications include The Quantum World (1989), Quantum Physics and Theology: An Unexpected Kinship (2005) and Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion (2007). He was knighted in 1997 and in 2002 received the $1 million Templeton Prize, awarded for exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension.[1]
Biography
Early life and education
Polkinghorne was born in Weston-super-Mare to George Polkinghorne, who worked for the post office, and Dorothy Charlton, the daughter of a groom. John was the couple's third child. There was a brother, Peter, and a sister, Ann, who died when she was six, one month before John's birth. Peter died in 1942 while flying for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.[2]
He was educated at the local primary school in Street, Somerset, then was taught by a friend of the family at home, and later at a Quaker school. When he was 11 he went to Elmhurst Grammar School in Street, and when his father was promoted to head postmaster in Ely in 1954, Polkinghorne was transferred to The Perse School, Cambridge.[2] Following National Service in the Royal Army Educational Corps from 1948 to 1949, he read Mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1952, then earned his PhD in physics in 1955, supervised by Abdus Salam in the group led by Paul Dirac.[3]
Career
Physics
He joined the Christian Union while at Cambridge and met his future wife, Ruth Martin, another member of the Union and also a mathematics student. They married on 26 March 1955, and at the end of that year sailed from Liverpool to New York. Polkinghorne accepted a postdoctoral Harkness Fellowship with the California Institute of Technology, where he worked with Murray Gell-Mann. Toward the end of the fellowship he was offered a position as lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, which he took up in 1956.[2]
After two years in Scotland, he returned to teach at Cambridge in 1958. He was promoted to reader in 1965, and in 1968 was offered a professorship in mathematical physics, a position he held until 1979,[2] his students including Brian Josephson and Martin Rees.[4] For 25 years, he worked on theories about elementary particles and played a role in the discovery of the quark.[1] During his period at Cambridge, he also spent time at Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford, and at CERN in Geneva. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974.[2]
Priesthood
He decided to train for the priesthood in 1977.[5] He said in an interview that he felt he had done his bit for science after 25 years, and that his best mathematical work was probably behind him; Christianity had always been central to his life, so ordination offered an attractive second career.[2] He resigned his chair in 1979 to study at Westcott House, Cambridge, an Anglican theological college, becoming an ordained priest on 6 June 1982 (Trinity Sunday). The ceremony was held at Trinity College, Cambridge and presided over by Bishop John A. T. Robinson. He worked for five years as a curate in south Bristol, then as vicar in Blean, Kent, before returning to Cambridge in 1986 as dean of chapel at Trinity Hall.[6][1]
Queens' College
He became the president of Queens' College, Cambridge in 1986, a position he held until his retirement in 1996.[6]
Awards
In 1997 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE); in 1998 an honorary fellow of St Chad's College, Durham, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Durham; and in 2002 was awarded the Templeton Prize for his contributions to research at the interface between science and religion.[7]
He has been a member of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee, the General Synod of the Church of England, the Doctrine Commission, and the Human Genetics Commission. He served as chairman of the governors of The Perse School from 1972 to 1981. He is a fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge and was for 10 years a canon theologian of Liverpool Cathedral. He is a founding member of the Society of Ordained Scientists and also of the International Society for Science and Religion, of which he was the first president.[8] He was selected to give the prestigious Gifford Lectures in 1993–1994, which he later published as The Faith of a Physicist.
In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Hong Kong Baptist University as part of their 50-year celebrations. This included giving a public lecture on "The Dialogue between Science and Religion and Its Significance for the Academy" and an "East-West Dialogue" with Yang Chen-ning, a nobel laureate in physics.[9] He is a member of staff of the Psychology and Religion Research Group at Cambridge University.[10]
Ideas
Polkinghorne said in an interview that he believes his move from science to religion has given him binocular vision, though he understands that it has aroused the kind of suspicion "that might follow the claim to be a vegetarian butcher."[6] He describes his position as critical realism and believes that science and religion address aspects of the same reality. Because scientific experiments try to eliminate extraneous influences, he believes that they are atypical of what goes on in nature. He suggests that the mechanistic explanations of the world that have continued from Laplace to Richard Dawkins should be replaced by an understanding that most of nature is cloud-like rather than clock-like. He regards the mind, soul and body as different aspects of the same underlying reality—"dual aspect monism"—writing that "there is only one stuff in the world (not two—the material and the mental) but it can occur in two contrasting states (material and mental phases, a physicist might say) which explain our perception of the difference between mind and matter."[11] He believes that standard physical causation cannot adequately describe the manifold ways in which things and people interact, and uses the phrase "active information" to describe how, when several outcomes are possible, there may be higher levels of causation that choose which one occurs.[12]
Sometimes Christianity seems to him to be just too good to be true, but when this sort of doubt arises he says to himself, "All right then, deny it," and writes that he knows this is something he could never do.[13]
On the existence of God
Polkinghorne considers that "the question of the existence of God is the single most important question we face about the nature of reality"[14] and quotes with approval Anthony Kenny: "After all, if there is no God, then God is incalculably the greatest single creation of the human imagination." He addresses the questions of "Does the concept of God make sense? If so, do we have reason for believing in such a thing?" He is "cautious about our powers to assess coherence," pointing out that in 1900 a "competent ... undergraduate could have demonstrated the 'incoherence'" of quantum ideas. He suggests that "the nearest analogy in the physical world [to God] would be ... the Quantum Vacuum."[12]
He suggests that God is the ultimate answer to Leibniz's great question "why is there something rather than nothing?" The atheist's "plain assertion of the world's existence" is a "grossly impoverished view of reality," he says, arguing that "theism explains more than a reductionist atheism can ever address." He is very doubtful of St Anselm's Ontological Argument. "If we cannot prove the consistency of arithmetic[15] it seems a bit much to hope that God's existence is easier to deal with," concluding that God is "ontologically necessary, but not logically necessary." He "does not assert that God's existence can be demonstrated in a logically coercive way (any more than God's non-existence can) but that theism makes more sense of the world, and of human experience, than does atheism."[16] He cites in particular:
- The intelligibility of the universe: One would anticipate that evolutionary selection would produce hominid minds apt for coping with everyday experience, but that these minds should also be able to understand the subatomic world and general relativity goes far beyond anything of relevance to survival fitness. The mystery deepens when one recognises the proven fruitfulness of mathematical beauty as a guide to successful theory choice.[17]
- The anthropic fine tuning of the universe: He quotes with approval Freeman Dyson, who said "the more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming"[18] and suggests there is a wide consensus amongst physicists that either there are a very large number of other universes in the Multiverse or that "there is just one universe which is the way it is in its anthropic fruitfulness because it is the expression of the purposive design of a Creator, who has endowed it with the finely tuned potentialty for life.[19]
- A wider humane reality: He considers that theism offers a more persuasive account of ethical and aesthetic perceptions. He argues that it is difficult to accommodate the idea that "we have real moral knowledge" and that "statements such as 'torturing children is wrong' are more than "simply social conventions of the societies within which they are uttered" within an atheistic or naturalistic world view. He also believes such a world view finds it hard to explain how "Something of lasting significance is glimpsed in the beauty of the natural world and the beauty of the fruits of human creativity."[20]
On freewill
Polkinghorne regards the problem of evil as the most serious intellectual objection to the existence of God. He believes that "The well-known free will defence in relation to moral evil asserts that a world with a possibility of sinful people is better than one with perfectly programmed machines. The tale of human evil is such that one cannot make that assertion without a quiver, but I believe that it is true nevertheless. I have added to it the free-process defence, that a world allowed to make itself is better than a puppet theatre with a Cosmic Tyrant. I think that these two defences are opposite sides of the same coin, that our nature is inextricably linked with that of the physical world which has given us birth."[21]
On science and religion
It is a consistent theme of Polkinghorne's work that when he "turned his collar around" he did not stop seeking truth.[22] Many of his books explore the analogies between science and religion, with a unifying philosophical outlook of Critical realism. He believes that the philosopher of science who has most helpfully struck the balance between the "critical" and "realism" aspects of this is Michael Polanyi.[23] He argues that there are five points of comparison between the ways in which science and theology pursue truth: moments of enforced radical revision, a period of unresolved confusion, new synthesis and understanding, continued wrestling with unresolved problems, deeper implications.[24]
On creationism
In 2003 Polkinghorne published a critical review of the anthology Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics, Robert T. Pennock (ed.), calling it "a massive volume of reprinted articles and lectures" that "will require both stamina and heroic patience." He goes on to state that "the arguments fly to and fro over the 800 pages of the book. It all makes for wearisome reading. Both sides are polemical and sometimes shrill. ... The whole debate of the book is definitely not a fruitful way in which to conduct a dialogue between science and theology." [25] Polkinghorne also noted that there was an "almost complete absence of theological (as opposed to philosophical) argument. ...A lecture by Arthur Peacocke is the only chapter that offers some theological reflection..." [25]
Following the resignation of Michael Reiss, the director of education at the Royal Society—who had controversially argued that creationism be taught in schools[26]—Polkinghorne argued in The Times that there is a distinction between believing in the mind and purpose of a divine creator, and what he calls creationism "in that curious North American sense," with a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 and the belief that evolution is wrong, a position he rejects.[27]
Bibliography
Polkinghorne has written 32 books, translated into 18 languages; 26 concern science and religion, often for a popular audience.
- Science and religion
- The Way the World is : The Christian Perspective of a Scientist (1984 – revised 1992) ISBN 0-281-04597-6
- One World (SPCK/Princeton University Press 1987; Templeton Foundation Press, 2007) ISBN 978-1-59947-111-2
- Science and Creation (SPCK/New Science Library, 1989; Templeton Foundation Press, 2006) ISBN 978-1-59947-100-6
- Science and Providence (SPCK/New Science Library, 1989; Templeton Foundation Press, 2006) ISBN 978-1-932031-92-8
- Reason and Reality: Relationship Between Science and Theology (SPCK/Trinity Press International 1991) ISBN 978-0281044870
- Quarks, Chaos and Christianity (1994; Second edition SPCK/Crossroad 2005) ISBN 0-281-04779-0
- The Faith of a Physicist – published in the UK as Science and Christian Belief (1994) ISBN 0-691-03620-9
- Serious Talk: Science and Religion in Dialogue (Trinity Press International/SCM Press, 1996) ISBN 978-1563381096
- Scientists as Theologians (1996) ISBN 0-281-04945-9
- Beyond Science: The wider human context (CUP 1996) ISBN 978-0521572125
- Searching for Truth (Bible Reading Fellowship/Crossroad, 1996)
- Belief in God in an Age of Science (Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0-300-08003-4
- Science and Theology (SPCK/Fortress 1998) ISBN 0-8006-3153-6
- The End of the World and the Ends of God (Trinity Press International, 2000) with Michael Welker
- Traffic in Truth: Exchanges Between Sciences and Theology (Canterbury Press/Fortress, 2000) ISBN 978-0800635794
- Faith, Science and Understanding (2000) SPCK/Yale University Press ISBN 0300083726
- The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis editor, with contributors including Ian Barbour, Sarah Coakley, George Ellis, Jurgen Moltmann and Keith Ward (SPCK/Eerdmans 2001) ISBN 0-281-05372-3 / ISBN 0-8028-4885-0
- The God of Hope and the End of the World (Yale University Press, 2002) ISBN 0-300-09211-3
- The Archbishop's School of Christianity and Science (York Courses, 2003)
- Living with Hope (SPCK/Westminster John Knox Press, 2003)
- Science and the Trinity: The Christian Encounter With Reality (2004) ISBN 0-300-10445-6 (a particularly accessible summary of his thought)
- Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science & Religion (SPCK 2005) ISBN 0-300-11014-6
- Quantum Physics & Theology: An Unexpected Kinship (SPCK 2007) ISBN 9780281057672
- From Physicist to Priest, an Autobiography SPCK 2007 ISBN 978-0-281-05915-7
- Theology in the Context of Science SPCK 2008 ISBN 978-0281059164
- Questions of Truth: Fiftyone Responses to Questions about God, Science and Belief, with Nicholas Beale; foreword by Antony Hewish (Westminster John Knox 2009) ISBN 978-0664233518[28]
- Science
- The Analytic S-Matrix (CUP 1966, jointly with RJ Eden, PV Landshoff and DI Olive)
- The Particle Play (W.H. Freeman, 1979)
- Models of High Energy Processes (CUP 1980)
- The Quantum World (Longmans/Princeton University Press, 1985; Penguin 1986; Templeton Foundation Press 2007) ISBN 9780691023885
- Rochester Roundabout: The Story of High Energy Physics (New York, Longman, 1989) ISBN 978-0582050112
- Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction (2002) OUP ISBN 0-19-280252-6
- Chapters
- On Space and Time (CUP 2008) along with Andrew Taylor, Shahn Majid, Roger Penrose, Alain Connes and Michael Heller ISBN 978-0521889261
- Spiritual Information: 100 Perspectives on Science and Religion (Templeton Foundation Press, 2005) ed Charles Harper ISBN 1-932031-731
- Creation, Law and Probability (Fortress Press 2008) ed Fraser Watts) with Peter Harrison, George Ellis, Philip Clayton, Michael Ruse, Nancey Murphy, John Bowker & others ISBN 978-0800662783
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Participants, John Templeton Foundation, 2005, accessed 25 March 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f O'Connor, J.J. and Robertson, E.F. John Charlton Polkinghorne, Gap group. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
- ^ From Physicist to Priest, pp. 9–11; 23–29; 34.
- ^ From Physicist to Priest, pp. 40–50.
- ^ From Physicist to Priest, p. 9.
- ^ a b c Reisz, Matthew. On the side of the angels, Times Higher Education, 19 February 2009.
- ^ For basic bio-details see Who's Who 2006
- ^ ISSR Website
- ^ "Diary of Events" (PDF). Hong Kong Baptist University. 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ Staff list, Psychology and Religion Research Group, accessed 25 March 2010.
- ^ Science and Christian Belief. p. 21.
- ^ a b Sharpe, Kevin (July 2003). "Nudging John Polkinghorne". Quodlibet Journal. 5 (2–3).
- ^ From Physicist to Priest, p. 107.
- ^ This and (unless noted otherwise) all subsequent quotations are from Chapter 3 ofScience & Christian Belief, also known as The Faith of a Physicist.
- ^ A reference to Gödel's incompleteness theorem.
- ^ Science and Theology, pp. 71–83.
- ^ Science and Theology, p. 72.
- ^ Science & Christian Belief, p. 76.
- ^ Science and Theology, p. 75.
- ^ Science and Theology, pp. 81–82.
- ^ Polkinghorne, John (2003). Belief in God in an Age of Science. New Haven, CT: Yale Nota Bene. p. 14. ISBN 978-0300099492.
- ^ See, for example, John Polkinhorne. Exploring Reality: the Intertwining of Science and Religion. pp. ix.
- ^ John Polkinghorne (2007). Quantum Physics and Theology: An Unexpected Kinship. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. p. 6. ISBN 978-0281057672.
- ^ Quantum Physics & Theology, pp. 15–22.
- ^ a b Polkinghorne, John, Review of Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics. Philosophical, Theological and Scientific Perspectives, The Journal of Theological Studies, pages 460–461, April 1, 2003
- ^ 'Creationism' biologist quits job, BBC News, 16 September 2008.
- ^ Polkinghorne, John. Shining a light where science and theology meet, The Times, 19 September 2008.
- ^ Questions of Truth website
Further reading
- Google Scholar List of papers by John Polkinghorne
- Some Polkinghorne quotes
- Video interview with Polkinghorne, accessed 25 March 2010.
- Macfarlane, Alan (2008). Interview of John Polkinghorne, 10 November 2008.
- Pannenberg, Wolfhart (2001). "Response to John Polkinghorne". Zygon. 36 (4): 799–800.
{{cite journal}}
: External link in
(help)|title=
- Polkinghorne, John. "Reductionism", Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science, accessed 25 March 2010.
- Semple, Ian (2009). From physicist to priest: A quantum leap of faith, The Guardian, 9 April 2009; interview with Polkinghorne.
- Smedes, Taede A. Chaos, Complexity, and God: Divine Action and Scientism .Louvain: Peeters 2004, a theological investigation of Polkinghorne's (and Arthur Peacocke's) model of divine action.
- Runehov, Anne L.C. "Chaos, Complexity, and God: Divine Action and Scientism by Taede A. Smedes", Ars Disputandi, Volume 6, 2006.
- Southgate, Christopher, ed. (1999) God, Humanity and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion T&T Clark. Relevant extracts.
- Steinke, Johannes Maria (2006) John Polkinghorne – Konsonanz von Naturwissenschaft und Theologie Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Investigates Polkinghorne's theory of consonance, and analyses its philosophical background.
- Wright, Robert. Video interview, Slate, accessed 25 March 2010.