SCIENTISTS AND MEMBERS OF THE SCIENCE COMMUNITY ENCOURAGED TO SUBMIT ESSAYS TO WORLDWIDE WRITING COMPETITION

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY A TOP CATEGORY

Atlanta, GA – January 19, 2004 - The Power of Purpose Awards: A Worldwide Essay Competition is pleased to announce that Paul Davies, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Australian Centre for Astrobiology, has joined its list of distinguished judges. Well known as a researcher, author, broadcaster, and public lecturer, Davies has received many honors including the Michael Faraday Prize from the Royal Society and the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

Scientific Inquiry is one of four suggested topics for essayists who enter the competition. Members of the scientific community are encouraged to submit unpublished or previously published works. This international writing contest, intended to encourage people to think about the benefits of purpose, is being conducted entirely on the internet at www.powerofpurpose.org.

Purpose may be defined as something more important than our simple survival, something not merely intellectual, but in our souls. It is something outside of ourselves, greater than individual human beings or even groups of people. Purpose can change public policy, define our relationship with nature and the cosmos, and inspire the spark that makes ordinary people do extraordinary things.

Naturalist and theologian Charles Raven, in his work Natural Religion and Christian Theology, commented on the joy he derived from studying butterflies. “Every specimen differed from the rest, in detail from those of its own group, in total effect from those of others. Each was in itself a perfect design… To move from one to another, to sense the difference of impact, to work out the quality of this difference in the detailed modifications of the general pattern, this was a profoundly moving experience.”

To encounter nature in its beauty and complexity is to wonder about nature's purpose. Today, scientists have more advanced ways of studying butterflies and other forms of life than Raven did. But many are moved, nonetheless, to believe that the highly complex nature of the universe is evidence of purpose.

Entrants to The Power of Purpose Awards may hail from physics, biology, chemistry, and many other fields. They should explicate for the general audience how natural purpose and order have become evident in their field. The confirmation could exist on the cosmic or microcosmic level. Applicants need not demonstrate original scientific research, but should shed some new light on the base of scientific knowledge available today. Essays could also include suggestions for other sorts of studies that might demonstrate natural purpose.

Entrants may try to connect natural purpose with the purpose of man. How has discovering this evidence of purpose, either from first-hand research or secondary reading, affected your understanding of your own purpose?

In recent years, there has been a new symbiosis created between religious belief and science as each field looks to the other for greater understanding of nature’s mysteries. An essay might examine some new points of contact between science and religion.

The distinguished panel of judges also includes Nancy Brinker, Founder, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; Hugh Delehanty, Editor in Chief, AARP Publications; Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund; and Rick Warren, pastor and author of the 13 million copy bestseller The Purpose Driven Life.

There is no entry fee. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2004. All entries must be submitted on the internet, in English, and must contain 3500 words or less. The competition is sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.

“Survey the pinnacles of human achievement, in engineering, science, art or human compassion, and ask: What drove their creators? What propelled them to such soaring heights of accomplishment? Single-minded, dedicated purpose! The ability to achieve is worthless without the power of purpose to mobilize it.”
—Paul Davies

“What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?”
—Stephen Hawking