John Polkinghorne

‘Theism presents an adequately rich basis for understanding the world in that it readily accommodates the reality of a world shot through with value. Scientific wonder at the order of the universe is indeed a partial reading of the ‘mind of God’…Yet there is much more to the mind of God than science will ever discover. Our moral intuitions are intimations of the perfect divine will, our aesthetic pleasures a sharing of the Creator’s joy, our religious intuitions whispers of God’s presence.

The natural understanding of the value-laden character of our world is that there is a Supreme source of value whose nature is reflected in all that is held in being. Otherwise the pervasive sense of value is hard to understand.

I am presenting here a form of axiological argument for the existence of God, a twentieth century version of the fourth way of St Thomas Aquinas, “Therefore there must also be something which to all beings is the cause of their being, goodness and perfection, and that being is called God”…our value-laden world testifies to one who is worthy of worship”.’

Source: John Polkinghorne Science and Religion page 19-20