Science and religion have been at odds for centuries, but Sir John Polkinghorne, who is both a physicist and a priest, sees them as simply two versions of one quest to comprehend humanity.
Polkinghorne will present his point of view during the Frederic C. Wood Jr. Lecture on "The Friendship of Science and Theology" Wednesday, April 22, at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of Anabel Taylor Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Polkinghorne is president emeritus of Queens' College, Cambridge, where he has been professor of mathematical physics since 1968. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and was ordained in the Anglican Church in 1982.
Polkinghorne is the author of 10 books, including The Particle Play: An Account of the Ultimate Constituents of Matter, The Quantum World, The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker and, most recently, Beyond Science: The Wider Human Context.
"There is a serious dialogue between science and theology in his work, which is the best treatment of these issues that I know of," said the Rev. Robert Johnson, director of Cornell United Religious Work, who invited Polkinghorne to campus. "He owns up to all the problems and brings marvelous clarity to points of agreement," Johnson said.
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