Paul Davies
(1946-)
Paul Davies is an English physicist, a broadcaster, a professor in Arizona State University, and the director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science.
His first book
The Physics of Time Asymmetry, in 1974, explored the "arrow of time."
He received the Templeton Prize in 1995.
In 1999 Davies was a critical member of a research symposium at the Santa Fe Institute on the topic "Complexity, Information, and Design." Several participants were founders of the Santa Fe Institute, including
Stuart Kaufmann.
Davies wrote the introduction and a key article for the resulting 2003 book From Complexity to Life: On the Emergence of Life and Meaning.
The "meaning" in the title is the meaning or
purpose of
life before life appeared in the universe. The "design" in the subtitle is "
Intelligent Design" or
Creationism.
Davies and fellow Templeton grantee
Niels Hendrik Gregersen edited the 2010 book
Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics. The writers are all said to be "wrestling with the theme of God as the ultimate informational and structuring principle of the universe."
In 2005, Davies became the chair of the Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup of the International Academy of Astronautics supporting the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
Davies' 2007 article in
The New York Times, "
Taking Science on Faith" argued that the faith scientists have in the immutability of physical laws has origins in Christian theology. It sparked a controversy involving
Richard Dawkins,
Jerry Coyne, Nathan Myhrvold, Lawrence Krauss, Scott Atran, Sean Carroll, Jeremy Bernstein, PZ Myers,
Lee Smolin, John Horgan, and Alan Sokal.
Normal |
Teacher |
Scholar
|
