Bill Philips is a Methodist who sings in his church choir, says grace with his family before meals, and prays at other times, though less often then he says he should. He considers himself a person of faith who cannot imagine how he would ever stop believing in God.

In his work life, Dr. Phillips is a physicist based at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. For his scientific achievements in the field of quantum mechanics, he won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics. He had done his graduate studies at M.I.T. where a mentor convinced him that he could do physics “at the frontiers, competing with the best in the world, and do it with openness, humanity and cooperation.”

I had the opportunity to hear Bill Phillips speak late last month at Harvard University. The occasion was a three-day conference organized by Science and the Spiritual Quest. This California-based agency promotes dialogue between scientists and scholars of religion. The Boston-area conference was one in an ongoing series of national and international events intended to stir thinking and discussion between the two cultures of science and religion.

Among the dozen or so scientists I heard speak about their own work and, in some instances, their own religious beliefs and practice, I was particularly impressed by Bill Phillips. His pleasing and witty style, his competence and, at the same time, his humility, all commended him as a model of  the religious man committed to scientific investigation.

He may have been eminent enough in his field to have won the Nobel prize, but he puts himself into perspective as another seeker looking into the mysteries of material creation and also looking for God.

He calls himself “an ordinary scientist and an ordinary Christian” but his deep understanding in both areas of his life suggest that these descriptions do not actually apply to him.

When he turns toward science, Bill Phillips has the unusual ability to explain lucidly how things work in quantum mechanics. At the submicroscopic level, he says, things behave strangely. For example, in the quantum world, an atom can be in two places at the same time and objects may have certain properties only when a person looks at them.

His specific area of research is the trapping and cooling of atoms. At the very low temperatures that he has achieved, these atoms move very slowly indeed and in doing so reveal waves that become large enough to be seen with the naked eye. Among other products, laser-cooled atoms will some day make possible quantum computers far more competent than today’s.

Dr. Phillips finds support for his faith in what he sees in his experiments. “When I examine the orderliness, understandability, and beauty of the universe,” he says, “I am led to the conclusion that a higher intelligence designed what I see. My scientific appreciation of the coherence, the delightful simplicity, of physics strengthens my belief in God.”

Belief, however, is not in itself scientific, though Dr. Phillips makes a point of saying that his scientific understanding supports his faith. In the expanded version of his talk, he goes on to write:  “ I have a feeling .   .   . that we will never find truly convincing scientific evidence about the existence of God.” But, as he takes note, faith would not be faith if you actually had such evidence.

The God of Albert Einstein is not good enough for him. The great theorist Einstein believed in a God who gave creation an order and intelligence but did not care about human beings. For Phillips, God is in personal relationship with us and loves us relentlessly. In his daily life he experiences the presence of the God who is active in the world.

Like many other thoughtful people, he also experiences doubts about God. The classical problems of evil and suffering leave this brilliant man without answers, just like everybody else. For him as a Christian, the question of Jesus’s relation to other faiths also seems perplexing.

Ultimately, however, in Bill Phillips’ view, what is most important about faith in God is how we act toward other human beings. To him, his faith-based mandate to love others as himself counts more than anything else.

Richard Griffin