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John Polkinghorne Interviewed on the Occasion of His 85th Birthday The mathematical physicist and Church of England priest John Polkinghorne celebrated his 85th birthday on 16 October 2015.
In anticipation of this event, between October 2014 and January 2015 Russianist Patrick Miles conducted three interviews with John Polkinghorne on a very wide range of topics, focussing particularly on his latest books Quantum Physics and Theology (2007) and Science and Religion in Quest of Truth (2011). Edited versions of these interviews were published to honour John Polkinghorne’s birthday in Church Times 9 October 2015. Below is a video playlist of 15 themes that were discussed. Click the play button to start from the beginning, or use the top-left icon to open a playlist window and jump to any theme. To read a synopsis of each theme, please click the titles below.
Topic 1: Why are science and religion not compatible/compatible?
Synopsis: The existence of evil and suffering in the world is the greatest challenge to belief in God, but science itself cannot address such questions; its remit is to discover how the world works, not why things are the way they are. Science and religion are different kinds of motivated belief.
Topic 2: ‘Damascus Road’ experiences, despair, and near-death experiences
Synopsis: Polkinghorne explains that when he resigned his Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge to become an Anglican priest, it was not because of a sudden conversion. However, when close to death once, he had ‘waking dreams’ of people praying for him, which strengthened him.
Topic 3: Do you ever regret giving up your career in Academe?
Synopsis: Polkinghorne had friends who were important figures in mathematical subjects and their subjects had ‘moved away from them’, so for some time he had felt that he would not stay in mathematical physics forever. He discusses the question of academic ‘ambition’ generally.
Topic 4: The fuzzy and veiled world of quantum physics
Synopsis: Polkinghorne discusses how ‘empirical’ and ‘falsifiable’ the ‘unpicturable’ world of quantum physics is. It is based on quantum theory, ‘which we don’t understand as fully as we should’. If everything is so indeterminate, why is the world around us so orderly and reliable?
Topic 5: ‘Physics constrains but does not determine metaphysics’
Synopsis: This thought is expressed in Polkinghorne’s Quantum Theory (2002). The interviewer asks why, then, Einstein often used the word ‘God’ and quantum physicists have fiercely-held ‘metaphysical prejudices’. Polkinghorne explains that ‘everybody has their metaphysics’ and why.
Topic 6: Quantum Theory and Beauty
Synopsis: Regarding empirical evidence for quantum physics, Polkinghorne quotes Dirac as saying it is ‘more important to have beauty in your equations than to have the physical experiment’. Polkinghorne feels there is ‘something’ in Dostoevsky’s metaphysical dictum that ‘beauty will save the world’.
Topic 7: Parallel processes/concepts in theology and quantum physics
Synopsis: In his latest books Polkinghorne presents analogies between numerous theological and scientific concepts, e.g. phase transitions and miracles, Grand Unified Theories and the Trinity. He defends this approach, explaining that theologians are less reluctant to use analogies than philosophers are.
Topic 8: Dawkins and Polkinghorne
Synopsis: Is Polkinghorne saying that science in fact encourages a belief that God exists, where Dawkins asserts that science proves God doesn’t? Polkinghorne admits there are important ‘dysanalogies’ between science and theology, but sees a ‘consonance’ of inquiry between them, e.g.‘what is the nature of reality?’
Topic 9: Why does God allow cancer?
Synopsis: The supreme act of God’s love is his ‘kenosis’ (self-limitation). He has given his creation freedom. ‘But you can’t have genetic mutation producing new forms of life to be selected and supported through natural evolution without having the possibility of also having malignancy.’
Topic 10: ‘Hell will be a place of unending boredom painted grey’
Synopsis: Polkinghorne is much concerned with eschatology (‘last things’). He writes of heaven, purgatory and hell in the future tense. How can he be so sure of these things? Polkinghorne replies that ‘God works through process, not magic’ and this implies stages in ‘the transform of the old creation’.
Topic 11: A God of the Gaps?
Synopsis: Although science hasn’t demonstrated the causal closure of the natural world, this does not mean God is a ‘Cheshire Cat deity fading away as knowledge advances’. However, the ‘intrinsic unpredictabilities present in physical processes’ raise big metaphysical questions...
Topic 12: Has the God controversy of recent decades produced anything positive?
Synopsis: The existence of God is a very important and difficult issue, amongst others connected with religion. ‘In a back-handed way, people like Dawkins have done us a bit of a help in putting it firmly on the agenda’ – but they are ‘tremendously authoritarian’ in their thinking.
Topic 13: ‘Living for ever’
Synopsis: The interviewer asks whether we have a moral responsibility to make people live as long as possible. Polkinghorne replies that medical treatments must always be researched that prolong life in ‘some acceptable way’, but for Christians ‘death is not the worst thing that can happen to you’.
Topic 14: Is religion a convergent or divergent process?
Synopsis: All the religions are ‘talking about the same dimension of human experience’, but they are saying very different things about it and about human beings. Are they irreconcilable? Polkinghorne regards this as a burning issue. ‘A lot of faiths are just beginning to talk to each other.’
Topic 15: Theories of Everything
Synopsis: Hawking writes that if we found a General Unified Theory we would ‘know the mind of God’. But science doesn’t answer every question and therefore we have to look at other answers. Theology has a ‘scope’ that enables it to be an integrating disciple. Theology is the true ‘theory of everything’. If you wish to listen to the audio on an mp3 player, you can download all the interviews as a zip file by clicking here. Finally, the following are links to the full versions of the interviews as originally submitted to Church Times: Lead picture: Rev. John Polkinghorne photographed in the Chapel of Queens' College, Cambridge, c. 1996.
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