Freeman Dyson

Freeman Dyson is a theoretical physicist (like me) and mathematician, and a Christian (like me). His services to physics and maths you may not find so interesting, but you can believe me that they were substantial, if not a little too esoteric for most to appreciate. In particular there are some things in what we call "Many-Particle Physics" which we couldn't have done without. So perhaps with Dyson I wouldn't have a job.


Anyway, he also won the Templeton Prize for services to sprituality (or some such wording).


I got some nice quotes of his from Wikipedia. First:

Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect

Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute. The media exaggerate their numbers and importance. The media rarely mention the fact that the great majority of religious people belong to moderate denominations that treat science with respect, or the fact that the great majority of scientists treat religion with respect so long as religion does not claim jurisdiction over scientific questions.

This is important for us Christians to remember. Of course science doesn't answer the world's religious questions. But similarly, we've got to stop using religious knowledge to dictate what science we "believe" 

Second:

Dyson disagrees with the famous remark by his fellow physicist Steven Weinberg that "Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things—that takes religion."

Weinberg's statement is true as far as it goes, but it is not the whole truth. To make it the whole truth, we must add an additional clause: "And for bad people to do good things—that [also] takes religion." The main point of Christianity is that it is a religion for sinners. Jesus made that very clear. When the Pharisees asked his disciples, "Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?" he said, "I come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance." Only a small fraction of sinners repent and do good things but only a small fraction of good people are led by their religion to do bad things.