Quotes on Religion, God, Faith, Reason, Science, Pantheism & Morality from the Scientist / Philosopher Albert Einstein

[Observer]

Observer

This set of quotes is dedicated ( by me) to those who's arrogance is
less profound than their quest to understand.

quote
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should
transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the
natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense
arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a
meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any
religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be
Buddhism. (Albert Einstein)

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. (Albert Einstein, 1954) From Albert
Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman,
Princeton University Press

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. (Albert
Einstein, 1936) Responding to a child who wrote and asked if
scientists pray. Source: Albert Einstein: The Human Side, Edited by
Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann

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. (Albert Einstein,
"Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930

I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or
has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I
nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his
physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish
such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life
and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the
existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a
portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in
nature. (Albert Einstein, The World as I See It)

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. (Albert
Einstein, obituary in New York Times, 19 April 1955)

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. (Albert Einstein) Following his wife's advice
in responding to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the International
Synagogue in New York, who had sent Einstein a cablegram bluntly
demanding "Do you believe in God?" Quoted from and citation notes
derived from Victor J. Stenger, Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001),
chapter 3.

One strength of the Communist system ... is that it has some of the
characteristics of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.
(Albert Einstein, Out Of My Later Years, 1950)

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-e.htm

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. [He was speaking of Quantum Mechanics and the
breaking down of determinism.] My religiosity consists in a humble
admiratation 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. (Albert Einstein) Albert Einstein: The Human
Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University
Press)

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for
reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. (Albert Einstein)

The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am
unable to take seriously." (Albert Einstein) Letter to Hoffman and
Dukas, 1946

The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor
tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the
legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment
and action. (Albert Einstein)

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.(Albert Einstein) Albert Einstein: The Human Side

I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God
is a childlike one, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the
professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of
liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in
youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness
of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.
(Albert Einstein)

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. (Albert Einstein)
"Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930

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. (Albert Einstein)

The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the
rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me
no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Since our inner
experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory
impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be
empty and devoid of meaning.(Albert Einstein)

end quotes

http://www.mega.nu:8080/atheist_quotes_1.html


This replicated from


http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Religions-Atheist-Atheism-Agnostic.htm


Best Regards to all


Psychonomist