Dylab said:
Not to bring up the whole Einstein and religion bit again but I read a lot of the stuff Einstein wrote and I never read anything that sounded like that. Have any of you?
Not quite,
"The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books---a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects." --Albert Einstein
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." --Einstein
Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium (1941) ch. 13
“God may be sophisticated, but he’s not plain mean.” -- Albert Einstein.
Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish. --Albert Einstein
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In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself. --Albert Einstein
The following compile by BillyJoe
"Strange is our situation here on earth.
Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that
man is here for the sake of other men -- above all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends. "
"
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.
Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms. "
"
I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and
I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. "
"
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. "
"It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion."
"Scientific research is based on the idea that
everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a Supernatural Being. "
"
I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science.
My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.
Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God. "
"
I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."
"
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."
