Martin Rees may be the first atheist to win the Templeton Prize, which used to have the word "religion" in its title. Now the prize "honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works." The selection of Rees, an astrophysicist and cosmologist at the University of Cambridge, was announced on 6 April.
The annual prize was founded in 1972 by financier John Templeton. Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are among the best-known laureates, but they include religious leaders of many faiths, businessmen, and philosophers. In the past decade, seven of the winners have been physicists. The purse always exceeds that of the Nobel Prize; this year it is $1.6 million.
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