NPR's "Speaking of Faith"

Jonah Goldberg at NRO directed people to a show that aired Sunday on NPR. As part of their Speaking of Faith series, they interviewed physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne. Jonah and I both happened to catch it, and I agree with him- it was a fascinating discussion.

The fact that Polkinghorne is both a priest and a physicist may seem an odd combination- but should it? NPR asks: "Science and religion are often pitted against one another; but how do they complement, rather than contradict, one another?" Good question. The so called "line" between science and religion has mostly been invented by scientists on one side looking down upon the "irrational" religious, and the religious trying desperately clinging onto their hold over "truth". The reality is of course, they mostly ask different questions. When one asks, whether the Earth revolves around the Sun, or how does a cell work, or how did life evolve on Earth, one should ask a scientist. Why these things are so, how (or what) gives our lives meaning in not the province of science.

"The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go."

No matter which religion (or none at all) one believes in, 2 plus 2 still equals 4. Conversely, arithmetic has little to say about what happens after we die. Religion has lost credibility with many for its refusal to accept its limits, and over the course of history there have been too many Inquisitions, too many heretics burned at the stake for their scientific beliefs.

"It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment."

Polkinghorne attempts not to recognize this limit, I think, but merely to get around this by saying (the particular example was about the Book of Genesis and its scientifically inaccurate depiction of the beginning of life on Earth) of course, they were not writing a scientific textbook, one cannot take the poetry of the Book literally like prose. He suggests this is a misinterpretation of the meaning of the text- implying almost some sort of artistic license in changing the story. (I hope to convey his meaning accurately, I am working from memory here- I do not see a transcript available.) This seems to me, however, as merely intellectual slight-of-hand, dodging the question and refusing to concede that the Book is, in fact, wrong. One coming from his position could make a credible argument that while of course the Book is the word of God, the human interpretation of it was based upon the science of the time this was written and so forth...but he doesn't.

Polkinghorne makes an interesting point near the end of the broadcast about how while science has mostly carried the discussion, putting religion in response mode to it (i.e., we scientists have discovered this or that; now respond and defend religion) now religion is beginning to ask more questions back. The example he gave was "how do we define what is a person- what constitutes the whole of a person's being" a question which both sides can contribute. The attempt to blend science and religion is not an easy one, the first step must be a recognition from people on both sides that such an understanding is possible. Science and religion are generally intended to ask, and answer, different questions. Where they intersect is where the battle is happening now (with intelligent design versus evolution, the issue of when life begins in the abortion debate, etc.) and has gone on for thousands of years before. At least today, we generally refrain from burning people on the stake for their beliefs- progress marches on.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

NOTE: The blocked quotes throughout this piece all come from the same man, Galileo Galilei- the Italian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and one of the best and most fearless minds our Earth has ever known. I still have on my lower bookshelf, between the dense textbooks of college and popular mathematical books of today, Galileo and The Magic Numbersby Sidney Rosen. A child's book, it tells the story of Galileo's life from childhood through his brilliant and controversial career, through his condemnation by the Papal Inquisition, all the way until his death. The simple beauty he found in mathematics and geometry, the incredible and exciting discoveries he made in astronomy, the idea of seeing new things (through his newfangled "telescopes") in the sky -of which he was literally the first human to ever see- all of this inspired me. Although apparently the book is out of print now (one can be had on Amazon for $40.00!), I still have my aged copy: the outside plastic cover is long gone with only inside cover Scotch tape lines remaining as evidence of its past existence; the price (50 cents) penciled in on the top of the first page, a school library stamp telling the book's origin at the bottom. I wonder how much of my love for science, particularly of mathematics, and perhaps as well, my distrust of organized religion, comes from this book, which is as warm and familiar to me as an old friend.

The quotes above and many more can be found here.