For example, here is a passage from Dyson's review of The God of Hope and the End of the World from John Polkinghorne:

However many modern scholars ( such as John Polkinghorne ) hold that it is part of a deity's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for a deity to go against its own laws unless there were an overwhelming reason to do so.

Dr John Charlton Polkinghorne, KBE, FRS ( born 16 October 1930 ) is an English theoretical physicist, theologian, writer, and Anglican priest.

In 1997 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( KBE )-though since he is an ordained priest in the Church of England it is technically incorrect to call him " Sir John Polkinghorne ".

Polkinghorne considers that " the question of the existence of God is the single most important question we face about the nature of reality " and quotes with approval Anthony Kenny: " After all, if there is no God, then God is incalculably the greatest single creation of the human imagination.

Following the resignation of Michael Reiss, the director of education at the Royal Society — who had controversially argued that school pupils who believed in creationism should be used by science teachers to start discussions, rather than be rejected per se — Polkinghorne argued in The Times that there is a distinction between believing in the mind and purpose of a divine creator, and what he calls creationism " in that curious North American sense ," with a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 and the belief that evolution is wrong, a position he rejects.

Polkinghorne responded that " debating with Dawkins is hopeless, because there's no give and take.

Donald Polkinghorne noted that, " Humanistic theory does not propose that human action is completely independent of the environment or the mechanical and organic orders of the body, but it does suggest that, within the limits of experienced meanings, persons as unities can choose to act in ways not determined by prior events ... and this is the theory we seek to test through our research " ( p. 3 ).

* " Best Working Model ": For some ( e. g. John Polkinghorne ) religion makes the most sense of " the way the world is.

The fight is remembered by a plaque on the Red Lion pub in Saint Columb Major, Cornwall, where Polkinghorne was landlord and by a ballad entitled " A New Song on the Wrestling Match between Cann and Polkinghorne ".

The Polkinghorne Reader ( edited by Thomas Jay Oord ) provides key excerpts from Polkinghorne's most influential books.

Polkinghorne has written 34 books, translated into 18 languages ; 26 concern science and religion, often for a popular audience.

* John Polkinghorne on Panentheism

Nancy Frankenberry, Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, has described Polkinghorne as the finest British theologian / scientist of our time, citing his work on the possible relationship between chaos theory and natural theology.

When Polkinghorne argues that the minute adjustments of cosmological constants for life points towards an explanation beyond the scientific realm, Blackburn argues that this relies on a natural preference for explanation in terms of agency.

Richard Dawkins, formerly Professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, writes that the same three names of British scientists who are also sincerely religious crop up with the " likable familiarity of senior partners in a firm of Dickensian lawyers ": Arthur Peacocke, Russell Stannard, and John Polkinghorne, all of whom have either won the Templeton Prize or are on its board of trustees.

" After implying that the book's publisher, Westminster John Knox, was a self-publisher, Grayling went on to write that Polkinghorne and others were eager to see the credibility accorded to scientific research extended to religious perspectives through association — perspectives Grayling labelled " the superstitious lucubrations of illiterate goatherds living several thousand years ago ".

John Polkinghorne, an Anglican priest, member of the Royal Society and Canon Theologian at Liverpool Cathedral, was asked for a comment on Hamer's theory by the British national daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.

* Article on Cornish Wrestling which refers to James Polkinghorne

John Polkinghorne suggests that the nearest analogy to the existence of God in physics are the ideas of quantum mechanics which are seemingly paradoxical but make sense of a great deal of disparate data.

* Polkinghorne, J, 1991, Reason and Reality: The Relationship between science and theology, ( London, SPCK )

Particle physicist and Anglican theologian John Polkinghorne objects to what he calls promissory materialism — claims that materialistic science will eventually succeed in explaining phenomena it has not so far been able to explain.

Polkinghorne said in an interview that he believes his move from science to religion has given him binocular vision, though he understands that it has aroused the kind of suspicion " that might follow the claim to be a vegetarian butcher.

This led to allegations by Richard Dawkins, John Polkinghorne, and others in 2002 that the school taught creationism in science lessons.

The front cover features Thea Martin holding Reason and Reality: The Relationship Between Science and Theology by John Polkinghorne.

* The Polkinghorne Reader: Science, Faith, and the Search for Meaning ( Edited by Thomas Jay Oord ) ( SPCK and Templeton Foundation Press, 2010 ) ISBN 1-59947-315-1 and ISBN 978-0-281-06053-5

* 1993 – 94 John Polkinghorne Science and Christian Belief: Theological Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker, ISBN 0-281-04714-6

The philosopher A. C. Grayling criticized the Royal Society for allowing its premises to be used in connection with the launch of Questions of Truth, describing it as a scandal, and arguing that Polkinghorne had exploited his fellowship there to publicize a " weak, casuistical and tendentious pamphlet.

* Polkinghorne, Martin ( 2008 ).

* Donald Polkinghorne, Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences ( Albany: SUNY Press, 1988 ).

I knew that a conversation with the author would not settle such questions, because a man is not the same as his writing: in the last analysis, the questions had to be settled by the work itself.

But to return to the main line of our inquiry, it is doubtful that Utopia is still widely read because More was medieval or even because he was a martyr -- indeed, it is likely that these days many who read Utopia with interest do not even know that its author was a martyr.

To the extent that a tale is twice told, its final author must be suspect, although plagiarism in an oral tradition is less a misdemeanor than the standard modus dicendi.

The author of Crystal Structures is Ralph W.G. Wyckoff, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

He selected as Comptroller of Defense, not a veteran accountant, but a former Rhodes Scholar, Charles Hitch, who is author of a study on The Economics Of Defense In The Nuclear Age.

Postmaster General J. Edward Day, who must deal with matters of postal censorship, is himself author of a novel, Bartholf Street, albeit one he was obliged to publish at his own expense.

Not only should this provision be enforced but other economic and political actions might be taken which, this author believes, `` must surely be supported by every American who values the freedom that has been won for him and whose conscience is not so dominated by the lines in his account books that he can willingly and knowingly contribute to the enslavement of another nation ''.

The dialogue is sharp, witty and candid -- typical `` don't eat the daisies '' material -- which has stamped the author throughout her books and plays, and it was obvious that the Theatre-by-the-Sea audience liked it.

A semi-serious literary document entitled `` The Wings Of Henry James '' is noteworthy, if only for a keenly trenchant though little-known comment on the master's difficult later period by modest Owen Wister, author of `` The Virginian ''.

the author possesses an uncommonly fine English style, and he is dealing with subjects of vast importance that are highly topical for our time.

`` He has married me with a ring of bright water '', begins the Kathleen Raine poem from which Maxwell takes his title, and it is this mystic bond between the human and natural world that the author conveys.

This is not only a compliment to Mijbil, of whom there are a fine series of photographs and drawings in the book, but to the author who has catalogued the saga of a frightened otter cub's journey by plane from Iraq to London, then by train ( where he lay curled in the wash basin playing with the water tap ) to Camusfearna, with affectionate detail.

Mr. Sansom is English, bearded, formidably cultivated, the versatile author of numerous volumes of short stories, of novels and of pieces that are neither short stories nor travel articles but something midway between.

This latter failure is more than merely bad reportage and it is distinctly more important than it would have been had the author drawn Clerfayt as, say, a tournament golfer.

The man most firmly at grips with the problem is the University of Minnesota's Physiologist Ancel Keys, 57, inventor of the wartime K ( for Keys ) ration and author of last year's bestselling Eat Well And Stay Well.

While Swift ’ s proposal is obviously not a serious economic proposal, George Wittkowsky, author of " Swift ’ s Modest Proposal: The Biography of an Early Georgian Pamphlet ", argues that to understand the piece fully, it is important to understand the economics of Swift ’ s time.

Korzybski is remembered as the author of the dictum: " The map is not the territory ".

* Salvatore Iro, artist, author of Manifesto Art is ... Shit, a collection of works conceived to decrypt the language of modern and contemporary art, in 2012 creates the artwork Ceci est une pomme, marked by the subheading: " non aristotelian obviousness ".

Isabel Allende is a prominent Chilean author of the 20th and 21st centuries.