Today’s New York Times reports that Dr. Charles Townes, a physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for helping to invent the laser, was awarded the $1.5 million Templeton Prize for contributions to the advancement of science and religion. Excerpt:
Dr. Townes often recalls that he came up with the idea that would become the laser while sitting on a Washington park bench in 1951. In his 1966 article [The Convergence of Science and Religion], he said there was little difference between such epiphanies, when the subconscious hits on the solution to a problem, and the religious experience of revelation.
Dr. Townes, who described himself as a Protestant Christian, said there was no reason to expect that the Bible would be all correct. Asked about his beliefs, he said, "I have enormous respect and adoration for Christ and what he did," but he added that he did not know whether Christ actually was the son of God.
"He’s closer to it than anybody else I know of," Dr. Townes said.
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