Sir John Templeton: Supporting Scientific Research For Spiritual Discoveries / Edition 1

by Robert Herrmann

Overview

The biography of the "Wizard of Wall Street" who has dedicated his life to advancing the scientific study of spiritual realities has been revised and updated. Sir John Templeton was an inspiring and motivational force both through his personal example and through the foundation that bears his name and is dedicated to his mission.
 
This volume reviews the life of this man of vision, from his childhood in rural Tennessee, to his education at Yale and Oxford, to his legendary years on Wall Street, the birth of his children, and the development and growth of "humility theology science." Interwoven with the stories and facts are the roots of his faith and the values that he credits for his financial success and are the catalyst for his lifelong mission.
 
Sir John's biography updates the growth of the many and varied programs of the John Templeton Foundation that support this mission. It also introduces some of the scientists, theologians, philosophers, writers, and fellow investors who now serve as staff and advisors to the John Templeton Foundation, striving toward Sir John's goal of one-hundred-fold more spiritual information gained through the application of scientific methodology and analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781932031683
Publisher:	Templeton Press
Publication date:	04/01/2004
Edition description:	First Edition, First Edition, First Edition, 1
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dr. Robert L. Herrmann taught medical school biochemistry for twenty-two years, first at Boston University and later at Oral Roberts University. At the latter he directed a nation-wide recruitment program for medical and dental school faculty interested in a high level Christian mission-oriented teaching program. In 1981 he left medical education to become executive director of the American Scientific Affiliation, a 2,200-member society of Christians interested in integrating Christian faith and science. There he met member John Templeton, and they have since cooperated in writing several books, including The God Who Would Be Known and Is God the Only Reality? In 1998 he wrote Sir John's biography, and a revised edition in 2004. Dr. Herrmann is also a founding member of the John Templeton Foundation.

Read an Excerpt

Sir John Templeton

Supporting Scientific Research for Spiritual Discoveries

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By Robert L. Herrmann

Templeton Foundation Press

Copyright © 2004 Templeton Foundation Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-932031-68-3

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CHAPTER 1

An Investment in Scientific Research for More Spiritual Knowledge

In the view of John Templeton, progress in spiritual information is not only possible, but may be a consequence of God's creative role in our evolutionary history. Ours is a fascinating pilgrimage, starting slowly with crude awakenings in our early ancestors, who sometimes buried their dead with food and implements for a next world, followed by the flourishing of druids and Mayans and Egyptians, who left to their gods their curious monuments and exquisite pyramids, then on to the great mystics of India and the Middle East who left us the Vedas, the Holy Bible, and the Qur'an as well as majestic cathedrals and temples. And now, it would seem that our fascination with the meaning of our existence is growing deeper and more powerful—a perhaps surprising phenomenon in a scientific age where some thought science would have explained away religion.

The prior periods of human evolutionary history emphasized our physical and intellectual development; brain size more than doubled in contrast to earlier species and we learned to walk upright and use our hands skillfully. The exquisitely painted caves of Europe are evidence of just how skilled our ancestors were! And the current rate of acceleration of our intellectual development is phenomenal. Technologically, as Sir John told us in his 1995 Templeton College lecture, our progress is astounding. In the past fifty years we have written as many books as were written in all of previous human history, and over half of the discoveries in the sciences have been made since 1900.

Sir John sees our rate of spiritual development as only now beginning to accelerate, just as there were periods of gradual growth followed by rapid physical and intellectual development over the course of our history as a species. However, the rapid changes currently occurring in the intellectual phase, especially in the sciences, have introduced for Sir John a radically new vision of our place in the cosmos and set the stage for a giant leap forward in our spiritual understanding, a second Renaissance.

Many of these recent discoveries in fields such as physics, cosmology, neural science, and evolutionary biology have been so mind-boggling that they have changed the very way we think of ourselves and of our place in the universe. Certainly they have brought many of the practitioners—the scientists themselves—to a state of wonderment and humility, and provoked their serious consideration of philosophical and theological questions.

In an earlier book, The God Who Would Be Known, Sir John and I talked about the spirituality of humankind.

Humanity's fascination with a spiritual dimension, a hidden sphere of power, an underlying ordering principle that lies unseen behind everyday events as well as gigantic happenings, has grown and taken on new importance in the ensuing centuries. Science has given us knowledge of the fundamental structure of matter in terms of a plethora of subatomic particles, and knowledge of processes of biology in terms of molecular mechanisms. But each new explanation seems to open up deeper questions, as though we still see only the outline of things and explain our observations by means of models that only approximate the truth. Indeed, many in science now see the limitations of scientific description and do not presume that scientific descriptions are ultimate truth. For some there is the added conviction that the Creator is revealing himself through science, so that the results of science serve as signs pointing to a larger Reality.

Among the scientific discoveries displaying this philosophic, searching character we would include the current evidence for the big bang, a gigantic explosion which appears to have generated our cosmos as well as both time and space some 15 billion years ago. The products of this grand synthesis, star systems of enormous proportions, number in the hundreds of billions. The numbers are so large that there is no simple analogy to help our minds take it in. Someone has said that the number of stars is roughly equivalent to all the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world! Timothy Ferris has addressed the question of size in his book, Coming of Age in the Milky Way. He says:

And yet the more we know about the universe, the more we come to see how little we know. When the cosmos was thought to be but a tidy garden, with the sky its ceiling and the earth its floor and its history coextensive with that of the human family tree, it was still possible to imagine that we might one day comprehend it in both plan and detail. That illusion can no longer be sustained. We might eventually obtain some sort of bedrock understanding of cosmic structure, but we will never understand the universe in detail; it is just too big and varied for that. If we possessed an atlas of our galaxy that devoted but a single page to each star system in the Milky Way (so that the Sun and all its planets were crammed on one page), that atlas would run to more than ten million volumes of ten thousand pages each. It would take a library the size of Harvard's to house the atlas, and merely to flip through it, at the rate of a page per second, would require over ten thousand years. Add the details of planetary cartography, potential extraterrestrial biology, the subtleties of scientific principles involved, and the historical dimensions of change, and it becomes clear that we are never going to learn more than a tiny fraction of the story of our galaxy alone—and there are a hundred billion more galaxies. As the physician Lewis Thomas writes, "The greatest of all the accomplishments of twentieth-century science has been the discovery of human ignorance."

This humbling realization is only one of the most recent occurrences. If we move from astronomy to physics, we are confronted with such things as the strange behavior of the elementary particles of matter, which sometimes display the character of particles and sometimes behave instead like waves. Then, too, there appears to be a built-in limitation in the accuracy of our observation of these elementary particles, a phenomenon Werner Heisenberg called the uncertainty principle. The upshot of this measurement limitation is that we cannot know simultaneously both the position and the momentum of such particles; if we know where the particle is, we don't know where it's going, and if we know where it's going, we don't know where it is!

Sir John anticipated much of what we see now as the significance of these and many other strange and wondrous observations from the sciences. In his earlier book, The Humble Approach, written in 1981, he spoke of this new revelation of God from the "vast unseen."

Some people think supernatural events, such as miracles, are needed to prove God's existence. But natural processes and the laws of nature may be merely methods designed by God for His continuing creative purposes. When human scientists discover new laws, do they not merely discover a little more of God?

Each of us every day is swimming in an ocean of unseen miracles. For example, each living cell is a miracle; and the human body is a vast colony of over a hundred billion cells. The miracle of this body includes both our ability to recognize it as well as our inability ever to exhaust the true significance of it. As Albert Einstein said, "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." That the universe exhibits order, not chaos, suggests the futility of trying to fathom the nature of matter without investigating the unseen spirit behind it. Each time new laws are discovered by scientists, however, we learn a little more about God and the ways He continually maintains and is building His creation.

A mythical observer from another universe, who might have witnessed the spectacular Big Bang when the universe was created about eighteen billion years ago, would have seen after the first year only a vast blackness within thin clouds of stars and other fragments flying apart. But we, who observe from the surface of our small planet earth, see a totally different picture. We see a drama of evolution and progress on the surface of our earth, which is truly amazing and miraculous. And this progress is speeding up faster and faster and faster. By an unbelievable miracle, billions of humans, each of whom is a colony of billions of atoms, have suddenly covered the face of the earth. Most amazing of all is the fact that the unseen minds of these humans are accumulating knowledge in explosive proportions—knowledge of themselves, of the universe, of their Creator. Could we ever make an observer from another universe believe that this unseen explosion of human knowledge really exists? Would we believe that these new invisible minds are themselves participating creators in the ongoing drama of evolutionary creation?

These, then, are the kinds of scientific ideas and data that convince John Templeton that we are on the threshold of great discoveries of spiritual information. But he does not believe the leap forward will occur without a change in the hearts of the inquirers.

Sir John feels that a great barrier to our full flowering as spiritual beings is human egotism. Admittedly, there is much to be proud of, and our science and technology have brought us wondrous and often needful things, but we have forgotten the source. We assume far more knowledge and ability than we possess. We have forgotten Lewis Thomas's conclusion that this is the Age of Ignorance. And what we are most ignorant of is the Creator. It is humility toward the Creator that Sir John is concerned about!

In The Humble Approach, Sir John writes of a new approach to understanding more about God. His method consists of a broad, sweeping examination of our sources of theological knowledge from the various religions and from modern sources in the sciences, followed by proposals for research in spiritual progress. The essential ingredient for success, he says, is a humble approach.

The word humility is used here to mean admission that God infinitely exceeds anything anyone has ever said of Him; and that He is infinitely beyond human comprehension and understanding. A prime purpose of this book is to help us become more humble and thereby reduce the stumbling blocks placed in our paths toward heaven by our own egos. If the word heaven means eternal peace and joy, then we can observe that some persons have more of it already than others. Have you observed that these are generally persons who have reduced their egos, those who desire to give rather than to get? The Holy Spirit seems to enter when invited and to dwell with those who try to surrender to Him their hearts and minds. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). As men grow older and wiser, they often grow in humility.

The humble approach has much in common with but is not the same as natural theology, process theology, or empirical theology, whose horizons are all too narrow. They often attempt to give a comprehensive or systematic picture of God in keeping with human observations. But the humble approach teaches that man can discover and comprehend only a few of the infinite aspects of God's nature, never enough to form a comprehensive theology. The humble approach may be a science still in its infancy, but it seeks to develop a way of knowing God appropriate to His greatness and our littleness. The humble approach is a search that looks forward, not backward, and that expects to grow and learn from its mistakes.

All of nature reveals something of the Creator. That golden age of creation is reached as the Creator reveals Himself more and more to the minds of men. Man cannot learn all about God the Creator by studying nature because nature is only a contingent and partial manifestation of God. Hence natural theology, which seeks to learn about God through nature, is limited. Recently a new concept of theology, called the theology of science, was born. It denotes the way in which natural scientists are meditating about the Creator based not only on their observations of the astronomic and subatomic domains, but also on investigations into living organisms and their evolution, and such invisible realities as the human mind.

Experimental theology can reveal only a very little about God. It begins with a few simple forms of inquiry, subject to little disagreement, and proceeds to probe more deeply in thousands of other ways. Spiritual realities are not quantifiable of course, but there may be aspects of spiritual life that can be demonstrated experimentally one by one, although there may be hundreds of failures for each success. This approach is similar to that of experimental medicine.

As with experimental theology, the humble approach implies that there is a growing body of knowledge and an evolving theology not limited to any one nation or cultural area. The truly humble should be so open-minded that they welcome religious views from any place in the universe that is peopled with intelligent life. Seekers following the humble approach are never so xenophobic that they reject ideas from other nations, religions, or eras. Because the humble approach to theology is ongoing and constantly evolving, it may never become obsolete.

To learn about God, a worldwide approach is much too small. Even a universe-wide approach is much too small. The "picture" 99 percent of people have of God is too small. Have you heard anyone say, "God is a part of my life"? Would it not be wiser to say of humanity that it is only an infinitesimal speck of all that has its being in and through God? Our own ego can make us think that we are the center rather than merely one tiny temporal outward manifestation of a vast universe of being, which subsists in the eternal and infinite reality that is God. Have you heard the words, "the realm of the Spirit"? Is there any other realm? Humanity on this little earth may be an aspect of all that is upheld by the Spirit, but the Spirit is not an "aspect" of humanity. To say that God is a "part" or an "aspect" of life is as blind as for a man, standing on a shore looking at a wave, to say, "The ocean is an aspect of that wave."

Sir John anticipated much of what is happening and needs to take place today in the theological world, just as his investment strategies of the Templeton Investment Funds era showed a keen sense of analysis and a willingness to speculate responsibly but in the broadest international context. In the true spirit of humility, he calls for a strategy, which has served so well for the sciences but is so foreign in theology, of examining every possibility with a willingness to accept truth wherever it is found, and to continually test and reexamine what has been passed down and what has been accepted in the present.

Admittedly, this is a tall order for theology, which operates from the standpoint of revelation and knows little of the empirical methods of the sciences. In fact, major religions are only now coming out of a deliberate separation from the scientific world, led by some of theology's most eminent scholars. Theologian Ronald Cole-Turner has reminded us that the Church moved into a period of isolation from science and technology some fifty years ago through the leadership of theologians like Karl Barth and later Langdon Gilkey. Religion's rejection of science as a resource for theology contained one primary advantage: Religion was insulated from the misuse of science and from the disturbing theories of science that could be interpreted to explain away the uniqueness of human beings and human consciousness. The fallacy of this approach, which Gilkey has since admitted, is seen in the almost total isolation of religious values from our culture. Cole-Turner describes this failure and the desirability for a new engagement with science and technology:

The disadvantage is that this strategy alienates theology not only from science but from the natural world itself. If the scientific interpretation of nature has no implications for Christianity, then Christian interpretation of creation has no consequences for science's understanding of nature. Skeptics quickly asked whether Christianity had any consequences at all. Was it all nothing but a set of stories intended to motivate good behavior? Or was it an isolated language game, a way Christians talk in church but untranslatable into the common speech of the broader culture? Christianity was no longer taken seriously because it made no claim. It was simply God-talk, empty and irrelevant to life in the world.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Sir John Templeton by Robert L. Herrmann. Copyright © 2004 Templeton Foundation Press. Excerpted by permission of Templeton Foundation Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents

Preface / ix

Introduction / 3

Part I: THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN HUMILITY THEOLOGY SCIENCE

CHAPTER 1: An Investment in Scientific Research for More Spiritual Knowledge / 15

The human evolutionary pilgrimage • Acceleration of spiritual research • Awe at the size and intricacy of the universe • The human ego • The humble approach to comprehending more about God • How little we know, how eager we are to learn • Benefits from a new field of science, humility theology science

CHAPTER 2: Research on Spiritual Characteristics / 27

Testing the laws of the spirit • Universal principles of the spirit • Love hoarded dwindles, love given grows • It is better to give than to receive • Self-centeredness leads to loneliness • To be forgiven we must first forgive • Thanksgiving opens the door to spiritual growth

CHAPTER 3: Research in the Sciences / 39

Applying rigorous methodology to investigate deeper reality • Research at the limits of science • Scientists testing theological and philosophical questions • Paul Davies on mysticism • Research on purpose in the universe • Research on human creativity

CHAPTER 4: Research on the Role of Spirituality in Medicine / 49

Is religion the forgotten factor in medicine? • Contrasting religious attitudes of patients and health-care providers • Attitudes of medical scientists • Changing the attitudes of medical educators • New research opportunities

CHAPTER 5: A Call to Humility / 61

Theology is often resistant to new ideas • Science is providing empirical and scholarly approaches to new ideas • Prizes for papers in humility theology • The Progress in Theology newsletter • Who’s Who in Theology and Science

CHAPTER 6: Discovering the “Laws of Life” / 69

A high school essay program • Finding direction for life in rural Tennessee • How John Templeton’s parents influenced him • The Honor Roll for Character-Building Colleges • Future plans for academic courses emphasizing spiritual “Laws of Life” • Discovering the “Laws of Life”

CHAPTER 7: Bringing Science and Religion Together on Campus / 81

The gap between science and religion • The openness of scientists • New scientific developments of significance for theology • The Science & Religion Course Program

Part II: THE MAKING OF A WORLD-CLASS INVESTOR

CHAPTER 8: The Winchester Years / 95

A trip through Winchester • John’s parents and grandparents • Reminiscing with John’s brother • A remarkable upbringing • Educational trips • Marriage to Irene Butler • Eight weeks in Europe in a Volkswagen bus • John’s mother’s spiritual influence

CHAPTER 9: Reaching Out: Yale, Oxford, and Across the World / 109

Selling magazines to raise money for college • Studying economics at Yale • Attending Oxford as a Rhodes scholar • Founding Templeton College at Oxford years later • A post-graduation around-the-world tour • A brush with death in Palestine • Marriage to Judith Dudley Folk

CHAPTER 10: The Growth Years / 123

The early investment years • The principles of thrift and bargain hunting • The typewriter principle • The birth of John’s three children • Church and community activities • Dudley’s accidental death • Board of Trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary • Young Presidents Organization • The Templeton Growth Fund

CHAPTER 11: Investing with John Templeton / 135

The Templeton investment philosophy • The principle of maximum pessimism • The move to the Bahamas • John’s commitment to prayer and double tithing • The rise to international prominence • John Galbraith and Mark Holowesko • The sale to Franklin Resources, Inc.

CHAPTER 12: John Templeton’s Spiritual Investment Program / 147

The Templeton Prize • The Templeton Foundation • The Humility Theology Information Center • Honors for Sir John Templeton

CHAPTER 13: The Future of the Vision / 169

The staff of the John Templeton Foundation • The advisory board of the Humility Theology Information Center • Main objectives of the John Templeton Foundation • Researching creativity, purpose, the “Laws of Life,” and spiritual benefits to health and character building • Academic courses on science and religion • Science and Spiritual Quest programs • Humble Approach Initiative • Meaning of Freedom Program • Extending spirit of humility to all religions • Conclusion

Appendixes

A. Awards and Accomplishments of John Marks Templeton / 195

B. Board of Advisors of the John Templeton Foundation Humility Theology Information Center / 201

C. Trustees and Members of the John Templeton Foundation / 209

D. Recipients of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion / 211

E. Examples of Grants from the John Templeton Foundation / 214

F. 1999 Science & Religion Course Competition and Workshops / 222

G. 1999 Call for Exemplary Papers in Humility Theology / 223

H. Two Hundred Spiritual Principles from Worldwide Laws of Life / 224

I. Statement on Humility Theology / 233

J. Humility Theology Questions / 236

Notes / 239

Index / 243