Religion & Metaphysics
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Science & Spirituality

Science sheds more light on Spirituality. Economic Times. Monday, 4 2005. Berkeley physicist Charles Townes shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for fundamental work in quantum electronics based on the laser-maser principle.However, the distinguished scientist also shocks purists by saying that "advancing our understanding of spirituality is more important, ultimately, than physics." According to Townes, science is an effort to understand what the universe is made of and how it works. Religion, on the other hand, he says, is an attempt to understand the meaning and purpose of the universe. Understanding how the universe works should give us a good deal of information about whatis its purpose and meaning. "Thus, science sheds more and more light on spirituality," says the researcher who became the first Nobel laureate to win the John Templeton Prize for Progress toward Research about spiritual realities. The Duke of Edinburgh willpresent the $1.5 million award at Buckingham Palace on May 4 2005. What about the view that science and spirituality are polar opposites that cannot or should not meet? Doesn't it bother him? Townes responds by presenting a holistic view of faith. We usually associate faith only with religion and spirituality.However, even scientists would flounder without faith,he writes in his autobiography, Making Waves. "Faith is necessary for the scientist to even get started,and deep faith is necessary for him to carry out his task." Townes describes himself as a man of faith in three distinct senses: he has faith in the scientific method and in the continuing advance of science. Secondly,his life demonstrates a quiet yet profound religious faith. Less common than either of these convictions, he has a deep faith that science and religion will gradually converge in the future. He does not merely believe in the compatibility of science and religion. Repeatedly he has sought to convince scientists why it's crucial that they work together. I remember watching as he addressed an audience at the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore. "Given these parallels, we should never treat these two great dimensions of the human spirit as fundamentally different or opposed. As our understanding of each increases, my own faith is they will increasingly grow together. If there's a purpose in the universe it must be related to structure and it determination (which is science)."
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