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Nobel title

John Polkinghorne, particle physicist

John Polkinghorne

Dr. Polkinghorne is the author of five books on physics, a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and a fellow of the Royal Society. He played a role in the discovery of the quark. In 1979 he resigned his chair to study to become a priest, and in 1982 he was ordained as an Anglican priest. Nancy Frankenberry of Dartmouth describes Polkinghorne as the finest British theologian/scientist of our time. Here are some of Polkinghorne’s statements:

“Science and religion address aspects of the same reality.” “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.”

“ ‘The question of the existence of God is the single most important question we face about the nature of reality … .’ ” “God is the ultimate answer to Leibniz's great question ‘why is there something instead of nothing?’ The atheist's plain ‘assertion of the world’s existence’ is a ‘grossly impoverished view of reality … theism explains more than a reductionist atheism can ever address.’ ” “God ‘is ontologically necessary, but not logically necessary.’ ” “Theism makes more sense of the world, and of human experience than does atheism.”

Wikipedia contributors, “John Polkinghorne,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Polkinghorne&oldid=754905279 (accessed December 15, 2016).


Picture credits:
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