Einstein’s Cosmic Religion
“It is very difficult to elucidate this [cosmic religious] feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.
“The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole…
“The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were, in many cases, regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints…
“How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it…
“I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research. Only those who realize the immense efforts and, above all, the devotion without which pioneer work in theoretical science cannot be achieved are able to grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue. What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to enable them to spend years of solitary labor in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics…
“Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious workers are the only profoundly religious people.”
—Albert Einstein, Cosmic Religious Feeling
May we each discover our own religion,
Simeon
Quote of the Week
“Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.”
— Alfred North Whitehead
How the Timeless Awakens in Time
In this video, we consider evolution as something more than natural history, as a deep inner motion, moving life toward self-recognition. Not a story of survival, but of awakening, where what unfolds through nature, thought, and wonder is no other than Spirit.
Suggested Reading
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
In The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James listens closely to saints, skeptics, and solitary mystics alike. A foundational work in the psychology of spirituality, here James investigates mystical, moral, and philosophical dimensions of religious life, often outside of institutional boundaries.
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