The award of a prize celebrating spiritual scientists at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences headquarters this week has irritated some atheist science-bloggers .

The 2010 Templeton Prize Laureate will be announced Thursday at the NAS headquarters in Washington D.C. at 11 a.m. ET. The $1.5 million prize is given by the John Templeton Foundation. The Philadelphia-based organization funds, "discovery in areas engaging life's biggest questions," and awards its prize to scientists involved with religious or spiritual thought in some fashion.

The award "each year honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical work," the foundation says.

"The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has brought ignominy on itself by agreeing to host the announcement," wrote well-known scientist and author Richard Dawkins, on his blog Wednesday. "This is exactly the kind of thing Templeton is ceaselessly angling for -- recognition among real scientists -- and they use their money shamelessly to satisfy their doomed craving for scientific respectability."

University of Minnesota, Morris, biologist P.Z. Myers also weighed in, saying "Bad form, NAS," on his Pharyngula blog. Spats over science, religion and atheism have flared up frequently among opinion writers in recent years, notably with last year's appointment of genome expert Francis Collins, an evangelical Christian, as head of the National Institutes of Health.

"We're letting Templeton use the room as a courtesy because the award is going to an NAS member," says spokesman William Kearney, by email. The Templeton foundation is paying for room and webcast of the ceremony, says Kearney, who didn't have any comment on the blog complaints.

So, who is the mystery winner? Dawkins and Myers guess NIH chief Collins, with side bets on a few other scientists. The award setting narrows the field, a little. "All I can say is it's one of our 2,000 or so NAS members," Kearney says.

So, stay tuned, or place your bets, if you feel a particular voice calling to you.

Readers, do you think the NAS should have hosted the ceremony?

By Dan Vergano

UPDATE: 3/25/10 -- And we have a winner! It's onetime priest-turned-disease researcher Francisco Ayala, a former American Association for the Advancement of Science head who has made big advances in evolutionary biology.

