Turning toward science?

According to this article by M. Mitchell Waldrop, the Templeton Foundation (endowment of $2B) seems to be making an adjustment away from religion and toward traditional science:

Towards the end of Templeton’s life, says Marsh, he became increasingly concerned that this reaction was getting in the way of the foundation’s mission: that the word ‘religion’ was alienating too many good scientists. This prompted a rethink of the foundation’s research programme — a change most clearly seen in the organization’s new website, launched last June. Gone were old programme names such as ‘science and religion’ — or almost any mention of religion at all (See ‘Templeton priorities: then and now‘). Instead, the foundation has embraced the theme of ‘science and the big questions’ — an open-ended list that includes topics such as ‘Does the Universe have a purpose?’

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Avatar of Jim Razinha
    Jim Razinha

    Sounds like repackaging creationism into intelligent design. "Does the Universe have a purpose"?

  2. Avatar of Mark Tiedemann
    Mark Tiedemann

    If they're sincere, it will be interesting to see if they can turn that ship out of the current they have long-since established. Institutional momentum is a bear to buck.

  3. Avatar of Jim Razinha
    Jim Razinha

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?i

    Stung by criticism … that it has a pro-religion agenda, the foundation has purged most references to religion from its mission statement. It now defines itself as "a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the 'Big Questions' of human purpose and ultimate reality." But according to an investigation published this year in Evolutionary Psychology (…), the foundation's religious agenda "seems to have remained the same."

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