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Overview
John Polkinghorne was born on October 16th, 1930, in a small town in England, and is still alive and well today at 89 years old. Throughout his long life, he was always a man of God, and he never let his work in physics and science stop that; instead, he used his platform to help show the world that science and religion aren't that different after all. -
Physics
Before John would become a Priest, he first worked in the field of physics for over 20 years. He graduated from trinity college, Cambridge, and would go on to work in California before returning to Europe to teach. During this time, John worked on theories of elementary particles and even helped discover the quark. He would also go on to write books like "The Quantum World," one of his few books not to include religion. -
Priesthood
In 1977 John decided his best work as a mathematician was behind him, and it was time for him to become an angelic priest for he had been a devoted Christian his whole life, so this simply felt like the next step in his life. He became an ordained priest on June 6th, 1986. and would be an active member of the community until retirement in 1996, and remained a theologian of the Liverpool cathedral till 2005. -
God
It should come to no surprise that being the man of science and religion that John was, his most celebrated works came from connecting the two fields. He wrote many books relating the two subjects and was quite outspoken in his belief of a strong relationship between science and religion. One of his more popular books is called "Belief in God in an Age of Science". Here is a video of John talking passionately about god. https://www.closertotruth.com/interviews/2845 -
Awards
Johns's work was loved by many, and for a good reason too. He actively tried to bring together two groups who rarely get along, and In doing so, he earned a lot of recognition. In 1997 he was nighted by the British empire, and in 2002 he won the Templeton prize for bridging the gap between science and religion. -
Counclusion
John Polkinghorne is 89 years old, and throughout his 89 years of life, John has written over 34 books, 26 of which are concerned with the connection between science and religion. Yet in all of his work, he never tries to undermine god or science, only bring the two competing subjects together. So, whether it's his work as a physicist or angelic priest, John always has and continues to see the light in both sides of religion and science.
