Laser physicist awarded Templeton Prize for spirituality
Dr Charles Townes, a physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for helping to invent the laser (not to mention the maser), was announced as the winner of the $1.5 million Templeton Prize, awarded annually for progress or research in spiritual matters. Keep in mind that currently the Nobel Prize is $1.3 million, making Templeton the world’s biggest score. Past recipients of the prize include Mother Teresa, former Indian president Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Princeton’s Dr Freeman J Dyson and Rev James McCord, and Seton Hall University’s Benedictine monk astrophysicist Rev Stanley L. Jaki (NJ represent).
Dr Townes, 89, a longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has long argued that science and religion are more alike than different and are destined to merge. In his seminal paper titled "The Convergence of Science and Religion", published in 1966 in the IBM journal "Think", he wrote: "Understanding the order in the universe and understanding the purpose in the universe are not identical, but they are also not very far apart."
Physicist is Awarded Templeton Prize in Spiritual Matters, New York Times
TempletonPrize.org