I want to know how God created this
world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this
or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.
Science without religion is lame.
Religion without science is blind.
My religion consists of a humble
admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight
details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
The further the spiritual evolution of
mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine
religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and
blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.
Every one who is seriously involved in
the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws
of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of
which we with our modest powers must feel humble.
The scientists’ 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.
There is no logical way to the
discovery of elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is
helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift
and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that
honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
The most beautiful thing we can
experience is the mysterious; It is the source of all true art and science.
We should take care not to make the
intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up
as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
When the solution is simple, God is
answering.
God does not play dice with the
universe.
God is subtle but he is not malicious.
A human being is a part of the whole,
called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences
himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest-a kind
of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons
nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle
of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its
beauty.
Nothing will benefit human health and
increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to
a vegetarian diet.
The man who regards his own life and
that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but
almost disqualified for life.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can
only be achieved by understanding.
Only a life lived for others is a life
worth while.
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.
The important thing is not to stop
questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be
in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the
marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
What I see in Nature is a magnificent
structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a
thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious
feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.
The finest emotion of which we are
capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true
science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of
wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is
impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom
and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our
poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is the core of the true
religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself
among profoundly religious men.
The real problem is in the hearts and
minds of men. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil
spirit of man.
True religion is real living; living
with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness.
Intelligence makes clear to us the
interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense
of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and
valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems
to me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the
social life of man.
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