Science and Religion Today » Obit

Ernan McMullin Dies

Heather Wax — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:21:22 +0000

Ernan McMullin, a philosopher of science at the University of Notre Dame who wrote about the relationship between cosmology and theology, and was an expert on the life of Galileo, died on February 8. He was 86.

Antony Flew Dies

Heather Wax — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:07:07 +0000

Antony Flew, a philosopher who argued that debates about God should begin with the “presumption of atheism” but then in his old age announced he had changed his mind about belief in a creator (citing scientific discoveries as the cause of his conversion to deism), died on April 8. He was 87.

Theologian & Author Robert Short Dies

Heather Wax — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:48:04 +0000

Robert Short, the Presbyterian minister and theologian who is said to have initiated the study of religion through popular culture (with his 1965 best-selling book The Gospel According to Peanuts), died on July 6 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was 76.

Benedictine Priest Stanley Jaki Dies

Heather Wax — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Rev. Stanley Jaki, a Hungarian physicist and theologian known for exploring the relationship between modern science and orthodox Christianity (and who won the Templeton Prize in 1987), died yesterday in Madrid, Spain, following a heart attack the day before. He was 84.

John Updike, Prize-Winning Novelist, Dies

Heather Wax — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:39:00 +0000

“Cosmically, I seem to be of two minds. The power of materialist science to explain everything—from the behavior of the galaxies to that of molecules, atoms, and their sub-microscopic components—seems to be inarguable and the principal glory of the modern mind. On the other hand, the reality of subjective sensations, desires and—may we even say—illusions, composes the basic substance of our existence, and religion alone, in its many forms, attempts to address, organize and placate these. I believe, then, that religious faith will continue to be an essential part of being human, as it has been for me,” wrote American author John Updike in his 2005 “This I Believe” essay for NPR.
Updike, who twice won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (for his novels Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest) and explored the relationship between science and theology in his 1986 book Roger’s Version, died of lung cancer yesterday at a hospice outside of Boston. He was 76.

The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus Dies

Heather Wax — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:33:00 +0000

The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, a theologian and writer who founded the journal First Things and an influential Catholic conservative (who occasionally advised President Bush and is said to have helped guide the administration’s policy on embryonic stem cell research and other issues), died from side effects of cancer treatment yesterday in New York. He was 72.

Robert Nylen, Co-Founder of Beliefnet, Dies

Heather Wax — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Robert Nylen, the magazine entrepreneur who co-founded the spirituality Web site Beliefnet with Steven Waldman in 1999, died of cancer on December 23 at his home in Ashfield, Massachusetts. He was 64.

John Templeton Testimonial

Heather Wax — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Charles Townes, winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 2005 winner of the Templeton Prize, sent us the following note in response to the death of Sir John Templeton yesterday at the age of 95:

“Sir John Templeton was a truly remarkable person. He was very open-minded, but deeply committed and devoted to some of the most important aspects of life. We have all benefitted from his insight and remarkable work, and humans will continue to benefit. We can all be thankful.”

Thanks, Professor Townes, for sharing your thoughts.

Sir John Templeton Dies

Heather Wax — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:09:00 +0000

Sir John Templeton, a mutual fund manager turned philanthropist who established the Templeton Foundation to explore the “big questions” of science and religion (and who many believe is, in large part, responsible for the modern movement to study the relationship between the two), died today of pneumonia in the Bahamas. He was 95.

Science, Religion, & Arthur C. Clarke

Heather Wax — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:15:00 +0000

Beloved science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died yesterday at the age of 90, and today, as he is being remembered by scientists, writers, and fans, comes news that he left explicit instructions for a completely secular funeral. Clarke, a dedicated humanist and visionary, with a background in physics and math, asked that “absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith” be associated with the ceremonies. He will be buried on Saturday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he’s lived since 1956.
Though Clarke believed religion was dangerous and something humanity needed to outgrow, his books, more than 100 in total, often dealt with ultimate questions of faith as well as science. Most famous among these works, 2001: A Space Odyssey (both a novel and a screenplay he co-wrote with director Stanley Kubrick) explores the perils of artificial intelligence and the mystery of human origins. The Nine Billion Names of God closes with the end of the universe. His final novel, The Last Theorem, which Clarke co-wrote with author Frederik Pohl, centers around a young Sri Lankan who discovers a short proof to Fermat’s Last Theorem. The book will be published later this year. —Heather Wax