John Polkinghorne Interviewed – On Religious Faith and Science

Paul writes – The interface between religion and science hasn’t particularly interested me, so I was pleasantly surprised by an excellent “Speaking of Faith” interview with (retired) Physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne. His thoughts on the freedom of creation, the “shadow-side of creation, and the ongoing nature of creation are fascinating.

“…Science and religion are often pitted against one another; but how do they complement, rather than contradict, one another? We learn how one man applies the deepest insights of modern physics to think about how the world fundamentally works, and how the universe might make space for prayer…”

You’ll find the transcript here, and can listen to and/or download the podcast here. The interview was recorded in 2005. More on John Polkinghorne can be found here…Crosscurrents have an interesting interview with Polkinghorne here (text only)

Here’s an excerpt from the “Speaking of Faith” interview:

Mr. Polkinghorne: “…You know, there's a very deep human intuition of hope. Peter Berger makes this very beautiful in a little book of his called A Rumor of Angels. He takes everyday things and says; "Think about them for a minute. Where are they pointing you? They're deeper than you think." And one of the things he says is a child wakes up in the middle of the night, scared by a dream or something like that, a parent goes to the child and says, "It's all right." And Berger says, "Now, what's going on there? Is that a loving lie? Because, obviously, cancer, concentration camps, the world is not exactly just all right."

But nevertheless, he says that is a deep human intuition, and the assurance that that's so is an important part of enabling that child to grow up into full humanity. So there is a deep-seated human intuition of hope, the strangeness and bitterness of the world notwithstanding. And I do take that very seriously.

Ms. Tippett: You take that seriously?

Mr. Polkinghorne: Yes, I do.

Ms. Tippett: As part of the evidence we have of the truth we're trying to get at?

Mr. Polkinghorne: Well, I think Berger calls these things "signals of transcendence," hints that take us beyond the everyday level of things. And I take it seriously at that level, yes…”

Comments

[Michael W. Kruse]

Thanks for this story.