Augustine Pamplany CST
Robert Andrews Milkan (1868-1953) was an American physicist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923. His measurement of the elementary electric charge and his works on the photoelectric effect are the major contributions that won him the Nobel Prize. He was born in Illinois in 1868. He obtained his Ph.D. from University of Columbia and was a professor of Physics at University of Chicago. His debates with Eddington on the nature of the cosmic rays are famous.
He shares the incident when his Greek professor asked him to teach physics, which motivated his interest in Physics. Though he was not trained in physics, he taught it with his own effort. “I doubt if I have ever taught better in my life than in my first course in physics in 1889. I was so intensely interested in keeping my knowledge ahead of that of the class that they may have caught some of my own interest and enthusiasm.” His passion for physics continued throughout his life.
Milkan had had a very positive idea about the relationship between science and religion. When there was much resistance against the theory of evolution, he managed to issue a statement with several top scientists and religious leaders as signatories. It was published in Science in 1923. “The purpose of science is to develop, without prejudice or preconception of any kind, a knowledge of the facts, the laws, and the processes of nature. The even more important task of religion, on the other hand, is to develop the conscience, the ideals, and the aspirations of mankind. Each of these two activities represents a deep and vital function of the soul of man, and both are necessary for the life, the progress, and the happiness of the human race. It is a sublime conception of God which is furnished by science, and one wholly consonant with the highest ideals of religion, when it represents Him as revealing Himself through countless ages in the development of the earth as an abode for man and in the age-long inbreathing of life into its constituent matter, culminating in man with his spiritual nature and all his God-like powers.”
He explained the purpose of this statement: “The purpose is to assist in correcting two erroneous impressions which seem to be current among certain groups of uninformed persons. The first is that religion today stands for mediaeval theology; the second that science is materialistic and irreligious.” On another occasion, he said, “No more earnest seekers after truth, no intellectuals of more penetrating vision can be found anywhere at any time than these, and yet every one of them has been a devout and professed follower of religion.”
