LONDON, UK, February 21, 2008: University of Oxford researchers will spend nearly US$4 million in a three-year program to determine why mankind embraces God.
The grant to the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion will bring together anthropologists, theologians, philosophers and other academics.
“There are a lot of questions,” said Roger Trigg, the centre’s director. “What is it that is innate in human nature to believe in God?”
He said anthropological and philosophical research suggests that faith in God is a universal human impulse found in most cultures around the world even though it has been waning in Britain and western Europe.
The study is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, a U.S.-based
philanthropic organization.