Science and Religion: Edwin Salpeter, Owen Gingerich and John Polkinghorne: In conversation with Mark Turin and Alan Macfarlane PDF
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ES dC itedIE N b yC RE a dA hN a D B é tR e illeEL I G I O N Creative Lives and Works SCIENCE AND RELIGION EDWIN SALPETER, OWEN GINGERICH AND JOHN POLKINGHORNE Edited by Radha Béteille In conversation with Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Mark Turin and Alan Macfarlane Pakistan or Bhutan) aninformabusiness ISBN 978-1-03-211973-1 ,!7IB0D2-bbjhdb! www.routledge.com RoutledgetitlesareavailableaseBookeditionsinarangeof digitalformats CREATIVE LIVES AND WORKS Science and Religion Science and Religion: Edwin Salpeter, Owen Gingerich and John Polkinghorne is the frst time a collection of interviews is being published as a book. These interviews have been conducted by one of England’s leading social anthropologists and historians, Professor Alan Macfarlane. Filmed over a period of 40 years, the fve conversations in this volume, are part of Social Science Press’s series Creative Lives and Works. These transcriptions also form a part of a larger set of interviews that cut across various disciplines, from the social sciences, the sciences and to the performing and visual arts. The current volume is on three foremost physicists and historians of science. Edwin Salpeter recounts rather dispassionately his departure from Austria to Australia to escape Nazi persecution. And in doing so broaches, not only, on the prevailing anti-Semitic sentiment of the time, but takes the debate forward into the one between science and religion. Though he only touches upon it, this debate fnds resonance in the words of Owen Gingerich who belonged to the Mennonite dispensation and who has been rather vocal about the pro-Christian anti-creationist ideology. However, it is John Polkinghorne who provides a deep insight into the ongoing debate on science and religion. Immensely riveting as conversations, this collection reveals how intrinsically related science and religion are, how pertinent it is to understand the workings of science in the context of religion. The book will be of enormous value not just to those interested in Astronomy and Cosmology as well as the History of Science, but also to those with an inquisitive mind. Mark Turin is a British anthropologist, linguist and radio broadcaster who specializes in the Himalayas and the Pacifc Northwest. From 2014–18, he served as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program and Acting Co-Director of the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is Associate Professor of Anthropology and director of the Digital Himalaya Project. Turin serves as founding editor of the World Oral Literature Series with the Cambridge-based Open Book Publishers, which aims to preserve and promote the oral literatures of Indigenous communities in innovative, responsive, ethical and culturally-appropriate ways. Turin's work has been recognized by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the Killam Trust. https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Mark_Turin Alan Macfarlane was born in Shillong, India, in 1941 and educated at the Dragon School, Sedbergh School, Oxford and London Universities where he received two Master's degrees and two doctorates. He is the author of over forty books, including The Origins of English Individualism (1978) and Letters to Lily: On How the World Works (2005). He has worked in England, Nepal, Japan and China as both an historian and anthropologist. He was elected to the British Academy in 1986 and is now Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and a Life Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Professor Macfarlane received the Huxley Memorial Medal, the highest honour of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 2012. CREATIVE LIVES AND WORKS Science and Religion Edwin Salpeter, Owen Gingerich and John Polkinghorne In conversation with Mark Turin and Alan Macfarlane Edited by Radha Béteille First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Social Science Press The right of Alan Macfarlane to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 9781032119731 (hbk) ISBN: 9781003222446 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003222446 Typeset in Plantin Std by Manmohan Kumar, New Delhi 110020 Contents Preface vii Transcriber’s Note ix Introduction xi PART I Edwin Salpeter – In conversation with Mark Turin 3 PART II Owen Gingerich – In conversation with Alan Macfarlane 25 PART III John Polkinghorne – In conversation with Alan Macfarlane 65 Appendix 1: Biographical Information – Compiled 125 by Radha Béteille Appendix 2: Scientifc Terms and Equipment – Compiled 157 by Radha Béteille Preface EDWIN SALPETER ‘I had the honour of being introduced to Ed (Edwin) Salpeter at the very end of his life by his wife Antonia (Lhamo) Shouse Salpeter, whom I had come to know through the Himalayan studies community at Cornell University in which we were both active. Albeit only in passing, I had mentioned to Antonia that I enjoyed meeting senior scholars from across the disciplines and contributing to this increasingly collaborative interview project to which Alan Macfarlane had introduced me: documenting the creativity and richness of academic lives. Antonia urged me to be swift, as Ed was in the last stages of his battle with leukemia. On a cold November afternoon in 2008, with an open fre crackling off-camera but within earshot, I sat with Ed in his Ithaca, NY, home. He lay on the couch for the duration of the interview, too weak to sit up. It was a real privilege to spend a few hours with Ed and to learn about his extraordinary life. He was a most gracious interviewee: patient with my ignorance of almost all aspects of astrophysics, and ready to answer all my stream of questions with enthusiasm and grace. Since there was no avoiding the reality that death lay around the corner, our conversation had both an inescapable weight and a unique openness. Ed spoke with the candour of someone who knew that there was nothing left to hide and that the interview would only be released after his passing. Professor Edwin Salpeter died two weeks later.’ OWEN GINGERICH I met Owen Gingerich at the International Symposium held in San Marino 29–31 August 2008 on ‘Creativity and creative inspiration viii PREFACE in mathematics, science, and engineering: developing a vision for the future’ where both he and I gave papers. I was impressed by his paper and conversations and decided to interview him. JOHN POLKINGHORNE I only met John Polkinghorne twice, at the two interviews I did with him. The frst interview was so interesting that he agreed to come back for a second. I found his combination of high-level science and very sophisticated ability in theology to be most fascinating and by the end of the second meeting the interview was starting to turn more into a dialogue as I became impressed and intrigued by his views. Mark Turin and Alan Macfarlane Transcriber’s Note The transformation of videographed speeches into the written word has been a riveting experience. Transcriptions, while retaining the essence of a conversation, lend a new dimension to the oral transmission, opening them up to a wider readership, including those with diminished auditory functions. The intellectual discourses in the three transcripts on the history of science, in particular, science and religion, draw in the reader as a participant. And, while offering a different order of internal cohesiveness, accentuates the ability of the reader to retain information, in this case, of knowledge and scholarship. This collection of transcripts tries to capture the engaging interactions between Alan Macfarlane, one of Britain’s foremost social anthropologists, and three eminent physicists and historians of science – Edwin Salpeter, Owen Gingerich and John Polkinghorne. Edwin Salpeter paints a vivid picture of the anti-Semitic sentiments that prevailed in the aftermath of World War II, and relays his work in the feld of astrophysics with equal ease. Owen Gingerich, in the process of introducing Mennonite culture, skilfully introduces the on-going debate between science and religion. John Polkinghorne begins with his days in applied mathematics and physics and then moves on to the more fundamental aspects and linkages between science and religion. Here, it must however be noted that not being a subject expert has been somewhat limiting. Besides, I have had to acquaint myself with speech patterns, accents, diction and intonations in areas that I was unfamiliar with when I began. Furthermore, the transcribing of oral transmission leaves little room to represent facial expressions and non-verbalized sounds such as chuckles, laughs, sighs and for that matter exclamations, as well
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