GRANADA, Spain, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists and religious scholars
from the world's major faiths voted today to form the International Society
for Science and Religion.  Meeting at the historic Alhambra in Granada, Spain,
the society elected the Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne of Cambridge University as
its first president.
    Science and religion are both searching for truth, Polkinghorne said in
his opening address to the society.  "We meet reality as a Thou and as an It,
and we know reality through trusting and not just testing," he said.
Polkinghorne, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1997, is ordained in the
Church of England and distinguished for his work in mathematics and physics at
Cambridge.
    Astrophysicist and Islamic scholar Bruno Guiderdoni noted that "true
knowledge brings us back to God."  "For Islam there is only one God and only
one truth.  Religious diversity continues and we all have to live together.
Let us conclude that diversity is God's will."
    Diversity is reflected in the society's roster, which includes members
from all the world's faith traditions, east and west.  The society's
97 charter members include Nobel laureates and members of the national
academies of science from many nations.  Along with Polkinghorne, three other
members of the society, Paul Davies, Ian Barbour, and Arthur Peacocke, are
past winners of the Templeton Prize for their contributions to religion and
science.
    Many expressed the hope that the society would bridge long-standing
divisions between religion and science and help overcome conflicts among the
religions themselves.  "As we face the universal claims of science and
confront its new challenges together, maybe we will find a common spiritual
ground among ourselves," according to Peacocke, an Anglican priest and
physical biochemist from Oxford University.
   Guiderdoni, who also serves as the Director of Research at the Paris
Institute of Astrophysics, said "once our spiritual nature is recognized, how
is it possible for us to bring violence to each other?"
    Religious conflicts are especially dangerous in an age of advanced science
and technology.  Carl Feit, cancer researcher and Talmudic scholar at Yeshiva
University in Jerusalem, agreed that today's science offers great promise of
benefit but also generates fear of misuse.  "The wisdom of the ages has much
to say regarding the wise and benevolent use of such power," he said.
    The society held its founding meeting at the Alhambra to recall a period
in the later middle ages when Jews, Christians, and Muslims all interacted in
the setting of Moorish Spain.  "The Alhambra symbolizes the sort of religious
cooperation and openness to science we hope will characterize the next
millennium," Polkinghorne told the society members.
    George Ellis, a cosmologist from South Africa, said that the founding of
the society is an important moment in human history.  "This is an occasion for
us to celebrate."

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