Quote of the day

From Fr. Michael Heller, priest and cosmologist and winner of 2008 Templeton Prize (ht: Jeff Miller), this quote:

"Science without religion is not only meaningless, it's lame."

Can Richard Dawkins be reached for comment? No? There is also this, from Heller's statement on the Templeton site (PDF file):

Science gives us Knowledge, and religion gives us Meaning. Both are prerequisites of the decent existence. The paradox is that these two great values seem often to be in conflict. I am frequently asked how I could reconcile them with each other. When such a question is posed by a scientist or a philosopher, I invariably wonder how educated people could be so blind not to see that science does nothing else but exploits God’s creation.

Heller, for what it's worth, makes strongly critical comments about intelligent design. Here is his bio on the Templeton site. A couple of snippets:

Despite the active anti-intellectualism of the Communist regime that controlled Poland for the majority of his life, Heller established himself as an international figure among cosmologists and physicists through his prolific writings – he has more than 30 books and nearly 400 papers to his credit – on such topics as the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics, multiverse theories and their limitations, geometric methods in relativistic physics such as noncommutative geometry, and the philosophy and history of science.

Simultaneously, as a Catholic priest, Heller surmounted the anti-religious dictates of Polish authorities, opening new vistas for the faithful by positioning the traditional Christian way of viewing the universe within a broader cosmological context and by initiating what can be justly termed the "theology of science."

<snip>

Despite the oppression of Polish Communist authorities against intellectuals and priests, the Church, energized by the Second Vatican Council, provided Heller with a sphere of protection that allowed him to make great strides in his studies.

Among those fostering this atmosphere in the 1960s was the Archbishop of Cracow, Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, who invited Heller and other scientists, philosophers and theologians to his residence to discuss their various disciplines. Heller and Józef Źyciński, later Archbishop of Lublin, began calling this group the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies and blended it into the Theological Faculty in Cracow. When the Solidarity movement in the 1980s ushered in fits and starts of newfound freedoms for Poland, Heller's subsequent travels and the translation of his writings helped to quickly establish his reputation around the globe.

Uh, so does this actually mean to suggest (gasp!) that the atheistic Soviet Union and Communist Poland were anti-intellectual, while the Catholic Church provided Heller with encouragement and support in his scientific endeavors? Can Sam Harris be reached for comment? No? Daniel Dennett? Busy? Well, please let them know that science without religion is lame.

Comments

[LJ]

I love that quote! It's the kind you wish you thought of yourself. Bravo Fr. Michael Heller.

[Brian]

Einstein is reported to have said, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

[John]

Fr. Heller is a priest and cosmetologist?

[John]

Fr. Heller is a priest and cosmetologist?

[Nick Milne]

Dawkins himself hasn't offered any commentary that I've seen, but his minions are doing pretty much what you'd expect (check the comments).

The most significant hilarity of the thing is the frequent accusation that scientists who believe in God are engaged in some sort of compartmentalized thinking, ultimately unwilling to reconcile the two ideas or at least abandon one. However, it's this same sort of torturous intellect at work in a man who can look upon a scientist whose output and credentials put him to shame in every possible way and declare that scientist to be "lazy" or "stupid" because the scientist has seen something that he hasn't.

I'd wager that not a single person offering commentary on that story could even understand one of Fr. Heller's papers, let alone criticize it with the fierce rational rigor of which they feel so capabale.

[Rick]

In his delusional book on God, Dawkins is very uncharitable to The Templeton Foundation or any scientist who espouses relgious beliefs for that matter. Fr. Heller understands the distinctions between science and philosophy, Dawkins apparently does not.