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

Notes

Some important things the herr doctor said.

In an essay broadcast as part of the "This I Believe" series in the 1950s, Einstein gave a succinct and beautiful explanation of his views on the possibility of a higher power

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the Mysterious — the knowledge of the existence of something unfathomable to us, the manifestation of the most profound reason coupled with the most brilliant beauty. I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, or who has a will of the kind we experience in ourselves. I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with the awareness of — and glimpse into — the marvelous construction of the existing world together with the steadfast determination to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature. This is the basics of cosmic religiosity, and it appears to me that the most important function of art and science is to awaken this feeling among the receptive and keep it alive.

"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

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

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

"To me," said Einstein, "God is a mystery, but a comprehensible mystery. I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature. There are not laws without a lawgiver, but how does

this lawgiver look? Certainly not

like a man magnified.

Hermanns, Einstein and the Poet

"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

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

"It is sheer nonsense to deny natural laws. They reveal such intelligence, that any human logic falters in comparison." Hermanns, Einstein and the Poetanity.

He said that the “profounder sort of scientific minds” all had a peculiar religious feeling of their won.

You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. Einstein The World as I see it.

Your question is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza's Pantheism. I admire even more his contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate things.

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