55 Quotes by John Polkinghorne

Well, it's because I gladly acknowledge some ideas that are part of process theology, but which I think are not tied to all the details of process thought, and are very illuminating and helpful.

So Whitehead's metaphysics doesn't fit very well on to physics as we understand the process of the world.

Quantum theory also tells us that the world is not simply objective; somehow it's something more subtle than that. In some sense it is veiled from us, but it has a structure that we can understand.

The test of a theory is its ability to cope with all the relevant phenomena, not its a priori 'reasonableness'. The latter would have proved a poor guide in the development of science, which often makes progress by its encounter with the totally unexpected and initially extremely puzzling.

Mathematics is the abstract key which turns the lock of the physical universe.

The rational transparency and beauty of the universe are surely too remarkable to be treated as just happy accidents.

I need the binocular approach of science and religion if I am to do any sort of justice to the deep and rich reality of the world in which we live.

God didn't produce a ready-made world. The Creator has done something cleverer than this, making a world able to make itself.

God is not a God of the edges, with a vested interest in beginnings. God is the God of the whole show.