More Prize-winning Progress in Religion

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from the New York Times, March 9, 2001, with a headline: “Religion Prize Won by Priest Much Involved with Science.”The Reverend Arthur Peacock, a Church of England priest and theologian who holds a doctorate in physical biochemistry will receive the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, one of the world’s largest monetary rewards.The new laureate received his doctoral degree from OxfordUniversity in 1948 and embarked on a career as a biochemist working among research scientists discovering the structure of DNA.After several years, he began studying theology and in 1971 received a Bachelor of Divinity degree and was ordained a priest.Later, he began teaching biochemistry and theology at CambridgeUniversity.In 1984 he founded a Center for the Study of Religious Beliefs in Relation to Science at Oxford where he became the only member of the theology faculty also to hold a science doctorate.Indeed, he writes, “if Christianity is to be more evangelical and its belief system widely respected as a vehicle of public truth churches will have to be open to an understanding of the world as shaped by science.He said he viewed studies in relation to biological evolution as a boon to religious belief, not a threat.What Darwin put forward and others have elaborated on he said allows believers to argue that God is a continuing, intimately involved presence in the world’s progressing creation.That, he said, counters a belief common among the Deists of an earlier era, that God having created the world, then had no more to do with it.The Templeton Prize was established in 1970, by the American born philanthropist, Sir John Templeton.It was intended to recognize work related to religion as the Nobel Prizes honor work in the sciences and the humanities.The winner is selected by an independent panel of nine judges drawn from five religious traditions.

Tom:

Dave, before you start pulling out the rest of your hair over the Templeton Prize and so on, I find some really fascinating things about this man and what he’s gone through and not just the prize.Let me point out a few things.First of all he gets his doctorate in biochemistry.Now we’ve said over and over again that if Darwin was a biochemist, if he had had an electron microscope, no way would he have come up with his theories.Yet this man, through biochemistry starts to point out some things that to him there must be a God.So he goes off and he gets a Divinity degree.And you think alright, this is good.He’s moving in the right direction.But where does he end up Dave?He ends up as a Darwinian evolutionist, or at least a theist.

Dave:

Theistic evolutionist.

Tom:

Right.Now where did it drop out for him?Is this academia blinding him, or—

Dave:

Well Tom, first of all, the Templeton Award—that’s really what they love.Because the Templeton Foundation is involved with joining science with religion.WheatonCollege gets involved with this.The Templeton Foundation co-sponsored a symposium of theologians and scientists and so forth.Isn’t it wonderful that theology and science now agree?Wait a minute!Scientists are not necessarily right and furthermore, this is a theory.It’s a theory that we could just give you a fact—we offer really an excellent book called In Six Days, fifty top scientists who tell you why God created this universe in six days and they tell you why evolution is a fraud, which it is.

Tom:

Yes, and theistic evolution doesn’t match up.

Dave:

So we are going to get God using evolution.It’s a very inefficient way to act. What kind of a God is this?Can’t he create a creature fully developed?He’s going to allow for the dying and trauma and the chance development and all the wrong developments and the bad problems that will arise and now natural selection and survival of the fittest.This is the way he’s going to do it?And then you have, as we’ve said in past program, you’ve got Adam and Eve standing on top of a pile of fossils and death was here before sin.

Tom:

Before sin!

Dave:

But the Bible very clearly says sin came by Adam and death came because of sin.Now you have to take your pick.And Tom, this is serious because it impacts the gospel.It says the gospel isn’t true and furthermore, Jesus did not believe in evolution.He believed in Adam and Eve.Was he really God then?He’s imperfect in his understanding?So it is just a tragedy, but the Templeton Award, Tom, and I know you don’t want me to go off on a wild—

Tom:

Well you only have a minute Dave, so good luck.

Dave:

Right.But leading Christians have accepted this.

Tom:

Sure.

Dave:

And yet Templeton is not a Christian, he doesn’t believe the Bible is God’s Word.He says I’m god, you’re god, everything is god and what we need is a new religion that is acceptable to all faiths, even the extraterrestrials, everybody can accept this.It’s not dependent on ancient manuscripts like the Bible, but it will be scientific.This is the world religion of the Antichrist he’s talking about and yet Christians have accepted a prize for contributing to the development of this religion.

Tom:

Such as?

Dave:

Well, you want me to name them?Billy Graham was the first, then you had Charles Colson, then you had Bill Bright.I cannot fathom it how they could join with this man and even praise him and praise his prize and praise this religion when they know what this man teaches.He is absolutely contrary to the Bible, contrary to the God of the Bible, contrary to the gospel of the Bible and this is not a secret.It is in many books that he has written.