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Religion
See other Religion Articles

Title: Physicist Is Awarded the Templeton Prize in Spiritual Matters
Source: NYT
URL Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/science/10prize.html
Published: Mar 10, 2005
Author: DENNIS OVERBYE
Post Date: 2005-03-10 06:06:51 by 2Trievers
Keywords: Physicist, Templeton, Spiritual
Views: 978
Comments: 9

Dr. Charles Townes, a physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for helping to invent the laser, added another and most unusual prize to a lifelong storehouse of honors yesterday. In a news conference at the United Nations, he was announced as the winner of the $1.5 million Templeton Prize, awarded annually for progress or research in spiritual matters.

Dr. Townes, 89, a longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has long argued that those old antagonists science and religion are more alike than different and are destined to merge.

"Understanding the order in the universe and understanding the purpose in the universe are not identical, but they are also not very far apart," he wrote in a seminal paper titled "The Convergence of Science and Religion," published in 1966 in the IBM journal "Think."

In a statement the Templeton Foundation described Dr. Townes as "a unique voice - especially among scientists - that sought commonality between the two disciplines."

The prize was established in 1972 by the investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton, with a monetary value always to exceed that of the Nobel. Dr. Townes is to receive his prize at Buckingham Palace in May.

Dr. Townes often recalls that he came up with the idea that would become the laser while sitting on a Washington park bench in 1951. In his 1966 article, he said there was little difference between such epiphanies, when the subconscious hits on the solution to a problem, and the religious experience of revelation.

Dr. Townes, who described himself as a Protestant Christian, said there was no reason to expect that the Bible would be all correct. Asked about his beliefs, he said, "I have enormous respect and adoration for Christ and what he did," but he added that he did not know whether Christ actually was the son of God.

"He's closer to it than anybody else I know of," Dr. Townes said.

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#1. To: All (#0)

From another article:

"Many people don't realize that science basically involves assumptions and faith," Townes said. "But nothing is absolutely proved."

2Trievers  posted on  2005-03-10   6:10:30 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: All (#0)

And another:

The co-inventor of the laser, Townes, 89, said no greater question faced humankind than discovering the purpose and meaning of life -- and why there is something rather than nothing in the cosmos.

"If you look at what religion is all about, it's trying to understand the purpose and meaning of our universe. Science tries to understand function and structures. If there is any meaning, structure will have a lot to do with any meaning," he said. "In the long run they must come together....

"Many people don't realize that science basically involves assumptions and faith. But nothing is absolutely proved," Townes said. "Wonderful things in both science and religion come from our efforts based on observations, thoughtful assumptions, faith and logic."

2Trievers  posted on  2005-03-10   6:12:52 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: 2Trievers (#2)

We all search for truth in our own ways. I look for it in things I can observe, which have basis in cold, hard fact, or that can be explained by mathematics or the application of scientific principles.

Others choose faith in things that cannot see, touch, feel, or otherwise quantify.

Perhaps he is right, that science and religion should come together, but they've been adversarial for thousands of years.

Samuel Gray  posted on  2005-03-10   7:53:13 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Samuel Gray (#3)

Very diplomatic of you to say.

Plainly and properly put for those who can see it: after their basic, physical needs are fulfilled, men turn their attention to one thing: a search for someone to reveal to them the point of being alive; this search is played out in various ways under sundry names, but it is all the same thing: a man in church, a man at a movie, a man engrossed in a novel, a man at a poetry reading, a new age lecture, an investment seminar a man trying to find the spiritual message of a painting, a sculpture, a building, a monument, a moment in history, a piece of serious music, a man in psychological counseling, a man telling someone what he thinks, or talking about what someone else has said they do, they are all engaged in the exact same thing and nothing else: they are trying to find someone to tell them the purpose of being alive, beyond that of simply staying alive.

This all inclusive statement cannot be proven, nor even made visible to ordinary minds: you either realize its accuracy when you hear, or you do not and never will, but from the uncommon inner perspective of those few souls born with the mental hunger to really get to the bottom of things -- FOR THEIR SELF -- nothing is clearer than the fact that more desperately than anything, does everyone want someone to tell them what’s going on -- the point of it all -- the purpose of life, and after the urbanized are fed, sheltered and rested, every single thing they do after – usually beyond their awareness -- is an effort to find this explanation, even though it may appear they look in the strangest of places, the places are all the same: it is consciousness looking at itself – peering at the fruits of its own creation; in church, men are not hearing messages from gods, but from their own consciousness -- from their own consciousness endlessly speculating on who/what consciousness is, and what be its purpose in being and in being aware of itself.

I am quite surprised that Dr. Townes hasn't delved into Eastern thought ... maybe he has, I dunno.

2Trievers  posted on  2005-03-10   9:33:41 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: 2Trievers (#4)

it is consciousness looking at itself – peering at the fruits of its own creation; in church, men are not hearing messages from gods, but from their own consciousness -- from their own consciousness endlessly speculating on who/what consciousness is, and what be its purpose in being and in being aware of itself.

Damn, that's just perfect. I saved that entire post to notepad.

Samuel Gray  posted on  2005-03-10   9:39:13 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: 2Trievers (#4)

This all inclusive statement cannot be proven, nor even made visible to ordinary minds: you either realize its accuracy when you hear, or you do not and never will

Hard fact, but absolute truths often seem harsh, don't they?

Samuel Gray  posted on  2005-03-10   9:41:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Samuel Gray (#5)

n church, men are not hearing messages from gods, but from their own consciousness -- from their own consciousness endlessly speculating on who/what consciousness is, and what be its purpose in being and in being aware of itself.

I have to agree, that's quite a thought provoking statement. Have to spend a little time digesting that one.

duckhunter  posted on  2005-03-10   9:46:20 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: duckhunter, 2trievers (#7)

I don't know if that's original 2T thought, I'm fairly sure it is, but wow.

I'm still reading it and shaking my head. That's one I'm going to have to print, and take out under a shade tree to reflect upon.

Samuel Gray  posted on  2005-03-10   9:50:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: Samuel Gray, duckhunter (#8)

This stuff is just like the Rules of Fight Club. 1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB. 2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB ... so even by talking about this ... one is automatically out of the zone. [Which is why I am so reluctant to get into these type of discussions ... yet they hold a je ne sais quoi fascination.]

If you are a .00001%-er, then maybe you can "get" this stuff. You can find it in the Daily News. Be sure to read the key to symbolism [direct link] and if you hair starts to hurt, look over the glossary of terms [also direct linked].

Perhaps if you have some "rebel" in you, no one, I mean no one can instruct you. You have to figure it out for yourself. It's not found in words. There are no words. And if you have any doubt about it ~ you’re correct.

2Trievers  posted on  2005-03-10   17:04:44 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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