Francisco Ayala, eminente biólogo evolucionista ganha prêmio Templeton 2010 por suas contribuições excepcionais da dimensão espiritual da vida

For Templeton Prize, intelligent design opponent Francisco Ayala

UC Irvine evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala has won the 2010 Templeton Prize, which honors those who make 'an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension.'

Francisco Ayala, the 2010 Templeton Prize winner, toured the globe speaking as part of 200th birthday celebrations for Charles Darwin.

The Templeton Foundation

By Peter N. Spotts, Staff writer / March 25, 2010

A highly respected evolutionary biologist has received the 2010 Templeton Prize, an award issued each year by the John Templeton Foundation to a person "who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works."

This year's winner, Francisco Ayala, is perhaps best known scientifically for his research into the evolutionary history of the parasite scientists have associated with malaria, with an eye toward developing a cure for the disease. He also pioneered the use of an organism's genetic material as molecular clocks that help track and time its origins.

But for the past 30 years, he has been at the forefront of battles to keep creationism and its more-sophisticated offshoot, intelligent design, out of public-school biology classes, noting that they actually represent religion masked as natural science. At the same time, he has vigorously argued that religion is a vital pillar in American life.

The US scientific enterprise is the envy of the world, he says, and the country is the most religious of any nation in the western world. "It is nothing short of tragic to see these two pillars of society are often seen as in contradiction with each other," he said during the award's presentation Thursday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.

"Properly understood, there can be no contradiction because they deal with different subjects," he said.

Although he has been reluctant over the years to describe his own religious leanings, Mr. Ayala argues that religion and science are "different windows" for looking at the world. Only when each tries to make "assertions beyond their legitimate boundaries" do the two appear to clash.

"Science gives us an insight on reality which is very important; our technology is based on our science," he says. "But at the end of the day, questions important to people, questions of meaning, purpose, moral values, and the like" are not answered through science.

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Read more here/Leia mais aqui: The Christian Science Monitor

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NOTA CAUSTICANTE DESTE BLOGGER:

Fui, nem sei por que, sem entender bulhufas da razão deste prêmio Templeton ser concedido ao ex-padre Francisco Ayala. Fui, contudo, sabendo que a estratégia Cavalo de Troia da Nomenklatura científica de engabelar os crentes de subjetividades religiosas de que é possível abraçar Darwin e D's já está em ação. 

Eu queria ver a cara e a reação do Richard Dawkins, do Daniel Dennett, do Jerry Coyne e a Galera dos neo-ateus pós-modernos, chiques e perfumados quando souberam desta notícia: um evolucionista premiado por suas contribuições excepcionais sobre a dimensão espiritual da vida...