Why Certainty About God is Overrated

John Polkinghorne doesn't know anything.

Sure, he is a world-class physicist and is one of the world's leading voices regarding the relationship between science and faith. And sure, he mathematically explained the existence of quarks and gluons, got his Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University, was knighted by the Queen for his efforts to develop ethical research standards for England's scientists, is a member of the Royal Society, was president of Queens' College, won the Templeton Prize, and wrote more than 30 books on the relationship between science and faith. But he doesn't really know anything.

For instance, does he know for certain that there is such a thing as a quark? Of course not, because no one has actually seen one. In fact, in a debate with Polkinghorne at the Smithsonian in 1999, Steven Weinberg, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, said this: "We don't believe in quarks because we've seen them. We believe in quarks because the theories that have quarks in them work."