Physicist Wins Spirituality Prize

Thu Mar 10, 7:55 AM ET

By Larry B. Stammer Times Staff Writer

Charles Townes, the UC Berkeley professor who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for his work in quantum electronics and then startled the scientific world by suggesting that religion and science were converging, was awarded the $1.5-million Templeton Prize on Wednesday for progress in spiritual knowledge.

The prize, the proceeds of which Townes said he planned to largely donate to academic and religious institutions, recognized his groundbreaking and controversial leadership in the mid-1960s in bridging science and religion.

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 was 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," he said in a telephone interview from New York this week. "Science tries to understand function and structures. If there is any meaning, structure will have a lot to do with any meaning. In the long run they must come together."

Townes said that it was "extremely unlikely" that the laws of physics that led to life on Earth were accidental.

Some scientists, he conceded, had suggested that if there were an almost infinite number of universes, each with different laws, one of them was bound by chance to hit upon the right combination to support life.

"I think one has to consider that seriously," Townes told The Times. But he said such an assumption could not currently be tested. Even if there were a multitude of universes, he said, we do not know why the laws of physics would vary from one universe to another.

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"The fact that the universe had a beginning is a very striking thing," Townes said. "How do you explain that unique event" without God?

Townes this week spoke of his interest in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The sheer number of stars and planets, he said, would likely increase the probability of intelligent life elsewhere. But for life to get started on even one planet is "highly improbable. It might not have started more than two or three times," he said. "It would be fascinating to find somebody out there."

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Science and Religion may converge and find acceptable harmony but only if science weakens its stringent requirements of verifiability and replicability or if the religious factions gain a shot of logic outside of their restricted viewpoints. I'm not even sure that mainstream religion is concerned with life's meaning. I feel it's more concerned with gaining (political) power, influence, and sheer survival - not to mention collecting the all-important tithe.

My view: Religion - organized religion - is collective, open to interpretation and perversion. It's a tool to be used by those in charge to manipulate, exhort, and extort the sheep. Spirituality, on the other hand, is a component of religion. It is personal, sensual, and may not have anything to do with finding meaning in life other than simply enjoying "being". But do I get a prize for being a hard-assed science geek with a stronger sense of spirituality than most preachers? Do I get a prize for being an Atheist and a Spiritual person? Didn't think so.