John Polkinghorne Quotes

33 quotes in 608 categories

• When you realize that the laws of nature must be incredibly finely tuned to produce the universe we see, that conspires to plant the idea…
• Science and religion...are friends, not foes, in the common quest for knowledge. Some people may find this surprising, for there's a feeling throughout our society…
• The test of a theory is its ability to cope with all the relevant phenomena, not its a priori 'reasonableness'. The latter would have proved…
• Mathematics is the abstract key which turns the lock of the physical universe.
• I think it's very important to maintain the classical Christian distinction between the Creator and creation.
• Bottom up thinkers try to start from experience and move from experience to understanding. They don't start with certain general principles they think beforehand are…
• Nevertheless, all of us who work in quantum physics believe in the reality of a quantum world, and the reality of quantum entities like protons…
• I'm a very passionate believer in the unity of knowledge. There is one world of reality - one world of our experience that we're seeking…
• The remarkable insights that science affords us into the intelligible workings of the world cry out for an explanation more profound than that which itself…
• Well, it's because I gladly acknowledge some ideas that are part of process theology, but which I think are not tied to all the details…
• Of course, Einstein was a very great scientist indeed, and I have enormous respect for him, and great admiration for the discoveries he made. But…
• I also think we need to maintain distinctions - the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology, and we should resist the temptation,…
• The rational transparency and beauty of the universe are surely too remarkable to be treated as just happy accidents.
• Hope is much more than a mood. It involves a commitment to action.... What we hope for should be what we are prepared to work…
• Those theologians who are beginning to take the doctrine of creation very seriously should pay some attention to science's story.
• At present, too much theological thinking is very human-centered.
• It is the faithfulness of God that allows epistemology to model ontology.
• So Whitehead's metaphysics doesn't fit very well on to physics as we understand the process of the world.
• Of course, nobody would deny the importance of human beings for theological thinking, but the time span of history that theologians think about is a…
• However, as the Eastern churches have always maintained, through Christ creation is intended eventually to share in the life of God, the life of divine…

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