Sir John Templeton Dead at 95

Sir John was one of great investors and philanthropists (here is the press release from the John Templeton Foundation site). I had the opportunity to hear him speak a couple of times and I conversed personally with him for a few minutes once (about interest rates and currency markets) and he was extremely insightful.

The foundation’s work, a big part of which looks to bridge religion and science, is sometimes controversial (for more see this old post), but it has funded many worthy efforts, including for example the recent seeding of the Foundational Questions Institute. I hope they continue to fund this kind of scientific research. In terms of critique, my personal wish would be that they divert some funding from religion and theology to non-religiously motivated study of metaphysics and philosophy of science. In any case, I think our progress on the big questions should be better because of the existence of the foundation. So, thanks to Sir John and to those who work at implementing his vision.