PDA

View Full Version : US geneticist wins $1.5 million religion prize



chloe
03-26-2010, 01:36 PM
By BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A one-time priest who later became an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist and helped scientifically refute creationism with his research was honored Thursday with one of the world's top religion prizes.

Francisco J. Ayala, 76, a U.S. citizen originally from Spain, will receive the 2010 Templeton Prize, valued at $1.53 million, the John Templeton Foundation announced at the National Academy of Sciences.

It is the largest monetary award given each year to an individual and honors someone who made exceptional contributions to affirm spirituality. Officials increase the value each year to exceed the Nobel Prize.

"I see religion and science as two of the pillars on which American society rests," Ayala told The Associated Press, saying the United States is one of the world's most religious countries. "We have these two pillars not talking, not seeing they can reinforce each other."

Ayala is a notable choice because he opposes the entanglement of science and religion. The former Dominican priest is adamant that science and religion do not contradict each other.

"If they are properly understood, they cannot be in contradiction because science and religion concern different matters, and each is essential to human understanding," he said in remarks prepared for the acceptance ceremony.

Ayala is a top professor of biological sciences at the University of California, Irvine. His pioneering genetic research led to revelations that could help develop cures for malaria and other diseases.

In January, he co-authored a paper that established gorillas and chimps may serve as reservoirs for parasites that cause human malaria, showing that even if a vaccine is developed, humans will be vulnerable to re-infection.

Ayala has long worked to foster dialogue between religion and science and said tension between the fields has subsided over time.

In 1981, Ayala was an expert witness in a U.S. federal court challenge that helped overturn an Arkansas law mandating the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. Three years later, the National Academy of Sciences asked Ayala to serve as principal author of "Science, Evolution and Creationism," which categorically refuted creationism and intelligent design.

He has said efforts to block religious intrusion into science equate with "the survival of rationality in this country."
"The Bible is not a textbook about science," he said. "It's not introductory astronomy."

Ayala said religion brings hope and meaning to people, and they know God exists as a matter of faith. Such questions are beyond the realm of science, he said.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=576&sid=10141392

Noir
03-26-2010, 01:45 PM
Lol @ "beyond the realm of science" Any scientist who has such an inbuilt bias is no scientist at all.

chloe
03-26-2010, 02:01 PM
Lol @ "beyond the realm of science" Any scientist who has such an inbuilt bias is no scientist at all.

So he isn't a scientist?

Noir
03-26-2010, 02:15 PM
So he isn't a scientist?

It depends, upon re-Reading his comments it seems that he was talking about what others think, and that he can not change that because science can not disprove a negitive.

If that is so then yes he is a scientist. However, if not, and it is his belief that religion can answer scientific questions that science can not, then he is not a scientist.

chloe
03-26-2010, 05:15 PM
It depends, upon re-Reading his comments it seems that he was talking about what others think, and that he can not change that because science can not disprove a negitive.

If that is so then yes he is a scientist. However, if not, and it is his belief that religion can answer scientific questions that science can not, then he is not a scientist.


Yeah I wasn't sure either, because it said he used to be a priest and then became a molecule biologist. Interesting article anyway.

Noir
03-26-2010, 05:20 PM
Yeah I wasn't sure either, because it said he used to be a priest and then became a molecule biologist. Interesting article anyway.

The fact that's it's from the templeton foundation makes me wary, they are the kind of wakos who want ID taught along side evolution in science classes ect, and have a massive financial pool with which they push their agenda from.

DragonStryk72
03-27-2010, 10:59 AM
Lol @ "beyond the realm of science" Any scientist who has such an inbuilt bias is no scientist at all.

So no one of faith can be a scientist? Wow, Einstein's gonna be pissed, hell, he said that as he studied the universe, he became more convinced of the existence of God.

what you seem to be saying is that only Atheists could be scientists, but they can't be either, since they categorically deny God, which is an inherent bias that can cloud their work.

Really, you missed the point the guy was making, that it doesn't have to be one or the other, that there's no reason for all this fighting between religion and science, that both can exist in concert, although they are obviously separate.

Missileman
03-27-2010, 11:07 AM
So no one of faith can be a scientist? Wow, Einstein's gonna be pissed, hell, he said that as he studied the universe, he became more convinced of the existence of God.

what you seem to be saying is that only Atheists could be scientists, but they can't be either, since they categorically deny God, which is an inherent bias that can cloud their work.

Really, you missed the point the guy was making, that it doesn't have to be one or the other, that there's no reason for all this fighting between religion and science, that both can exist in concert, although they are obviously separate.

Yep...he was rightly touting a separation of church and laboratory.