Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein is the 20th century's most famous physicist. He had a few things to say about religion.

Terms

Cosmic Man, Cosmic Religion, Cosmic Religious Feeling, Einstein Letter to Eric Gutkind, Einstein letter to Phyllis, The Old One

Notes

"Cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest incitement to scientific research" and "the most important function of art and science [is] to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it."

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of [primitive and childish legends]. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can change this for me. Einstein, letter to Gutkind, 1954

His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. Einstein, The World as I See It

If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus Christ taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity. Einstein, The World as I see it

Of course, no one wants to listen to me, yet as sure as I'm sitting here we will be destroyed unless we create a cosmic conscience. And we have to begin to do that on an individual level, with the youth that are the politicians of tomorrow. Hermanns, Einstein and the Poet

Footnotes

References