The prestigious Templeton Prize, which honors progress in our understanding of “spiritual realities,” was recently given to a Roman Catholic priest who denies intelligent design in the universe.

The recipient of this $1.6 million prize, Michael Heller, has accused intelligent-design proponents of committing a “grave theological error” by giving God’s design any part in creation. He believes that “what we call chance and random events is well composed into the symphony of creation.”

Ironically, Heller, a philosophy professor in Poland who denies God’s supernatural design, has now been honored for “progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities.”

^*http://www.templetonprize.org/pdfs/heller_statement.pdf