Skepchick: Did the Boston Globe Trade Science for Religion?

The decision to enlist a religion editor was probably made because the Templeton Prize is awarded annually to those who supposedly make an attempt to reconcile science and religion. Despite the seeming inclusion of science, the real emphasis has always been on those who are able to advance religion. Past winners have included evangelist Billy Graham, the not-as-saintly-as-you-may-suspect Mother Theresa, and Charles Colson, a Boston native best known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Colson was convicted and spent time in jail, after which he started his own Evangelical ministry and began speaking out against same-sex marriage (he supported Prop 8) and claiming that evolutionary theory is a tool of the devil. Quick, someone give that man £1 million for his contributions to science!

Templeton winners like those mean that the award may be prestigious in religious circles, but scientists tend to view it with a whole lot of skepticism. The prize is the largest of its kind in the world (its founder stipulated that it always be greater than the Nobel prize), and the various other grants they award are also substantial, meaning that even scientists who keep their religion separated from their work are tempted to take Templeton money.

While some may be interested in seeing an open dialogue between scientists and religious leaders, some claim that this isn't what Templeton is creating. Science writer John Horgan accepted a Templeton fellowship and was surprised at their bias against the idea that science and religion may need to remain separated. In an article for Edge, he wrote:

One Templeton official made what I felt were inappropriate remarks about the foundation's expectations of us fellows. She told us that the meeting cost more than $1-million, and in return the foundation wanted us to publish articles touching on science and religion. But when I told her one evening at dinner that — given all the problems caused by religion throughout human history — I didn't want science and religion to be reconciled, and that I hoped humanity would eventually outgrow religion, she replied that she didn't think someone with those opinions should have accepted a fellowship. So much for an open exchange of views.

The Templeton Foundation was established by Sir John Templeton, who died last year. The organization's president is now John Templeton, Jr. ("Jack"), a man whose hardcore evangelical Christian beliefs have people like Horgan worried that the money will continue to fund more fundamentalists while further restricting real dialogue.

With this year's award going to d'Espagnat, perhaps some of those worries are slightly assuaged since he really is a notable physicist who has performed important work in the tricky areas of quantum mechanics. His research delved into Bell's theorem, which would probably blow your mind if you have the patience to learn what the hell it all means (Richard Feynman once said, "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics"). That said, he looked behind his research to philosophize upon What It All Means, coming to the conclusion that while we may be able to see some of the true nature of reality, much of it will forever remain a mystery.

All that may be terribly interesting, but is it what the Reuters article describes? Religion Editor Heneghan wrote, "Award organizers said his work in quantum physics revealed a reality beyond science that spirituality and art could help to partly grasp," which is not undisputed fact. The physicist has decided that his research hit the wall (or in his case, what he describes as a "veil" separating science from the eternally unknowable), and no one else will be able to go beyond it.

In fact, there are many scientists who disagree with d'Espagnat, such as Ilkka Niiniluoto, who wrote in Critical Scientific Realism that d'Espagnat's "veil" is

". . . unnecessary. Science is a search for reality-according to realism, the aim of science is informative truth about the world. The Greek word for truth, alethia, means literally 'to uncover' or 'to unveil.' There is only a veil between the known and so far unknown parts of reality. The task of science is to increase the former part and reduce the latter by moving this veil. Our aim as scientists and philosophers is not to veil reality but to unveil it."

No hint of the controversies surrounding Templeton or d'Espagnat is dropped in the Reuters article, making one wonder why the Globe has chosen to designate it as "science." Apparently that's what happens when you lack a Science Editor - there's no longer room in the paper for deep examinations of complex scientific issues, but still plenty of room for uncritical religious articles posted under the banner of science.

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