Briton wins Templeton Prize

Barrow not only sees shared questions in religion and science, but also the possibility of shared beliefs. "The place that physicists and astronomers are most interested, as it were, in looking for the hand of God is at the level of the laws of nature - you know, things that you don't see, the overall rationality of the universe," he says.

The mere mention of God in discussions of science can spark fierce opposition in the scientific community. Columbia University astronomy professor Arlin Crotts wants religion put out of discussions about the creation of the universe, a view shared by many of his colleagues.

"We are finding out a lot without worrying about religious questions," Professor Crotts says, "and that's just such a charged topic that it's almost worth not bringing it up. It's probably good to just look at the results coming out of your instruments than worrying too much about things that are contaminated with a lot of preconceived notions."

In the United States, the role of religion in science has become a source of heated controversy on school boards and in courtrooms. Last December, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that a school district had violated the constitutional principle of church-state separation by instructing students on "intelligent design."

Barrow says these religion-and-science controversies are unnecessary and that the key to calming the storm in the US is better education.

"Fortunately we don't have this problem in Britain and Europe," Mr. Barrow says. Because Americans aren't taught about religion in school, he says, "it's possible for rather harebrained and untutored ideas about the interpretation of the Bible and the Christian tradition to arise unchecked."

Just as he thinks scientists should learn about religion in school, Barrow wants religious seminaries to include instruction in the sciences. "Serious religious education should embrace what's going on in science. It should raise important questions about the attraction between science and religion," he says.

Barrow agrees with the theological view of an abstract and all-encompassing God, a belief that he says never conflicts with his scientific research. "I certainly don't believe that there is some fundamental difference or conflict between a theistic perspective on the world and the practice of science and what science discovers about the world."

Barrow says scientific discoveries do not threaten religion because God does not fill in the gaps of unanswered scientific questions. Instead, he says, widely accepted theological views see God as having an all-encompassing and sustaining role in the broader theoretical questions of the universe. "I don't go along with this idea that God somehow sort of tinkers and arranges things here and there," he says.

Barrow is not sure how he will use his prize money, but says there are "good causes that I have in mind that would benefit from an anonymous contribution."

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