Charles Townes, the Nobel laureate whose inventions include the maser and laser and who has spent decades as a leading advocate for the convergence of science and religion, has won the 2005 Templeton Prize. The prize, valued at more than $1.5 million, was announced March 9 at a news conference at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York.
Townes, 89, secured his place in the pantheon of great 20th-century scientists through his investigations into the properties of microwaves that resulted first in the maser, a device which amplifies electromagnetic waves, and later his co-invention of the laser, which amplifies and directs light waves into parallel direct beams. His research, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964, opened the door for an astonishing array of inventions and discoveries now in common use throughout the world in medicine, telecommunications, electronics, computers, and other areas.
The 1966 publication of his seminal article, “The Convergence of Science and Religion” in the IBM journal THINK, however, established Townes as a unique voice – especially among scientists – that sought commonality between the two disciplines. Long before the concept of a relationship between scientific and theological inquiry became an accepted arena of investigation, his nonconformist viewpoint jumpstarted a movement that until then few had considered and even fewer comprehended. So rare was such a viewpoint at the time that Townes admitted in the paper that his position would be considered by many in both camps to be “extreme.” Nonetheless, he proposed, “their differences are largely superficial, and … the two become almost indistinguishable if we look at the real nature of each.”
Townes often cites his discovery of the principles of the maser – an insight that suddenly occurred to him as he sat on a park bench in Washington, D.C. in 1951 – as a “revelation” as real as any revelation described in the Scriptures, and as a striking example of the interplay of “how” and “why” that both science and religion must recognize.
In nominating Townes to the international, interfaith panel of nine judges that awards the prize, David Shi, president of Furman University, wrote, “He points out that both scientists and theologians seek truth that transcends current human understanding, and because both are human perspectives trying to explain and to find meaning in the universe, both are fraught with uncertainty. Scientists propose hypotheses from postulates, from ideas that ultimately cannot be proven. Thus, like religion, science builds on a form of faith.”
The Duke of Edinburgh will award the prize to Townes in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on May 4th. Townes says he intends to give a major portion of the prize money to Furman University, with substantial amounts to also go to the Pacific School of Religion, the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, the Berkeley Ecumenical Chaplaincy to the Homeless, and the First Congregational Church of Berkeley.
The Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities was founded in 1972 by pioneering global investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. Given each year to a living person to encourage and honor those who advance knowledge in spiritual matters and valued at 795,000 pounds sterling, the Templeton Prize is the world’s best known religion prize and the largest annual monetary prize given to an individual. The prize’s monetary value is in keeping with Sir John’s stipulation that it always be worth more than the Nobel Prizes to underscore his belief that research and advances in spiritual discoveries can be quantifiably more significant than those recognized by the Nobels.
