Religion: Catching an Angel in a Net

It is billed as the world's most lucrative honor. Every year since 1973, the Templeton Foundation* has given its Prize for Progress in Religion. All of the recipients have distinguished themselves primarily in spiritual endeavors. But the 1985 winner of the $185,000 award, announced last week, is an exception: Sir Alister Hardy, 89, won international fame as a British marine biologist. His ideas, however, are as discomfiting for many of his fellow scientists as they are for conventional churchmen. Throughout his career he has had an avocational curiosity about humanity's spiritual experiences and the possibility of using scientific methods to classify...