As a consequence, scientists who are carefully reflectiveabout their activity do not instinctively ask the question Is itreasonable? as if they were confident beforehand what shaperationality had to take. We have noted how unreasonable, inclassical Newtonian terms, the nature of light turned out tobe. Instead, for the scientist the proper phrasing of the truth-seeking question takes the form, What makes you think thatmight be the case?

About This Quote

About John Polkinghorne

John Polkinghorne was a 20th-century physicist and priest. John Charlton Polkinghorne was a Cornish theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest. A prominent and leading voice explaining the relationship between science and religion, he was professor of mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1979, when he resigned his chair to study for the priesthood, becoming an ordained Anglican priest in 1982. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Science — Discovery, inquiry, and the wonders of the natural world

More quotes by John Polkinghorne

Related Quotes