Augustine Pamplany CST
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, (1912-2007) was a German Physicist and Philosopher. He was born on June 28, 1912 in Kiel. His father Ernst von Weizsäcker was a German diplomat. He showed studious interest in science as well as in philosophy and religion from his early adolescence. He read extensively about all world religions. As a scientist his career was nuclear physics. His researches on the nuclear fusion process in stars won him fame. His research on planetary formation in early solar system was also influential. His later career was spent on philosophical and ethical issues. He received over 70 international awards including the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1989.
About theology and theologians, he said, “There is one thing I would like to tell the theologians: something which they know and others should know. They hold the sole truth which goes deeper than the truth of science, on which the atomic age rests. They hold a knowledge of the nature of man that is more deeply rooted than the rationality of modern times. The moment always comes inevitably when our planning breaks down and we ask and will ask about the truth.”
He believed that the uncertainty principle would help “reconcile the laws of nature with the moral necessity of accepting a human free will.” Of faith, he said, “Faith is not the blind obedience to my tradition; faith is the living trust in the divine presence.” Following Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, he claimed that quantum physics “implies no need at all for two separate substances called matter and mind. It would be fully reconcilable with a philosophy of spiritualistic monism.… Physics, as we have learned to know it, seems fully reconcilable with spiritualism.”
He held the view that the message of religion and science are not identical and we not even know how they are going to be reconcilable. This should not be surprising to us for none of the two is mature and they are far from accomplishing their tasks. “But just in acknowledging their own immaturity, science and religion can be friends. One of the tests of friendship is frank criticism…. Science may frankly ask religious people whether they are still afraid of reaching the modern level of rationality. Religion may frankly ask scientists whether they are still reluctant to accept the practical responsibility for the technological consequences of science.”
He was eloquent champion of the cause of peace. He appealed for an ecumenical council for Peace in 1985. “We call on the churches of the world to convene a Council for peace. Peace is today the pre-requisite for the survival of humanity. This peace is not secure. At an ecumenical Council, convened for the sake of peace, the Christian churches must collectively issue an injunction that humanity cannot ignore. Time is short.”
