Templeton Prize

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The winners 2012 ( Tenzin Gyatso ) and 2013 ( Desmond Tutu )

The Templeton Prize is - after the Fundamental Physics Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences ( US $ 3 million each ) - the third highest endowed award in the world (2015: 1,100,000 pounds sterling ) for individuals. It honors merits at the interface between science and religion .

The prize was donated in 1972 by the financial investor Sir John Templeton (1912–2008), who was named a Knight Bachelor in 1987 by Queen Elizabeth II for his charitable work . The award, presented annually by the Templeton Foundation , is deliberately based on the amount of the Nobel Prize and exceeds it in order to emphasize the importance of spirituality , which, in the opinion of the founder, is not sufficiently appreciated by the Nobel Prize. The award is not aimed at a specific religion or a particular image of God; the jury includes supporters of various religious communities as well as atheists .

From 1972 to 2001 the award was labeled “for progress in religion”, from 2002 to 2008 “for progress in research or discoveries about spiritual realities”. It is usually presented in London.

reception

The price is partly controversial among natural scientists. The price has been sharply criticized by the biologist and atheist religion critic Richard Dawkins . According to him, "a very large amount of money is usually given to a scientist who is willing to say something nice about religion". In his 2003 book Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics, the Dutch Nobel Prize laureate in physics, Martinus Veltman , suspected that the Anglican priest and physicist John Polkinghorne had received the Templeton Prize in 2002 for “building the difficult bridge between reason and nonsense”. Nobel laureate in chemistry, Harold Kroto, criticized his scientific colleague Martin Rees for accepting the Templeton Prize because it pursued the goal of "undermining the most valuable cornerstone of science:" that it was "the only reliable philosophical construct for determining truth". The prize has repeatedly gone to candidates who are close to the intelligent design movement, for example John D. Barrow in 2006 . The atheist philosopher Michael Ruse , in turn, speaks out in favor of the Templeton Prize. Since, in his opinion, it is not a contradiction in terms to be religious as a scientist, Ruse sees the Templeton Prize as a contribution to reducing the current tensions between faith and science.

Others

The Templeton Prize should not be confused with the Templeton Freedom Award, also named after John Templeton , which the Atlas Network , a foundation for the promotion of neoliberal politics, awards annually.

Award winners

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/apr/06/martin-rees-templeton-prize
  2. ↑ Templeton dies. ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.canada.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Ottawa Citizen, July 8, 2008, accessed November 26, 2013.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Stuart Jeffries: Is that all there is? In: The Guardian of December 8, 2007, accessed November 26, 2013.
  4. ↑ Martinus JG Veltman: Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics, p. 286, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore 2003 (English).
  5. ^ Harry Kroto: Analysis: award undermines the most precious tenet of science. In: The Times of April 6, 2011, accessed on November 27, 2013 (only the beginning of the article freely accessible online).
  6. ↑ http://www.templetonprize.org/previouswinner.html#barrow
  7. ^ "A Scientific Defense of the Templeton Foundation", Michael Ruse, Huffington Post (February 6, 2010) [1]