"The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events,
the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side
of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him
neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exist as an
independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a
personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in
the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in
those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set
foot. But I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the
representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal.
For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light, but
only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with
incalculable harm to human progress. In their struggle for the ethical
good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine
of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which
in the past placed such vast powers in the hands of priests. In their
labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are
capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity
itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more
worthy task."
by:
Albert Einstein
(1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
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Reader comments about this quote:
 -- Anonymous      
 -- Anonymous      
Anytime a personal relationship with God is compromised by the integration of an imposing third party, it is not good. One with God can always perform the most worthy tasks.
 -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Belief in God is faith based. Belief in science is based on facts. There will be a struggle when fact and faith collide.
     -- Joe, Rochester, MI     
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     -- Anonymous, Reston, VA US      
    Fabulous quote.
     -- EGL, LA     
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    Awesome.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    Science is faith-based.
     -- David L Rosenthal     
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    Excellent - I wish I said it. There comes a time when a bed is a bed and a chair is a chair. To base your life on faith without consideration of ethics is faith without substance and faith without substance is but chaff to the wind.
     -- Robert, Sarasota     
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    How complete and brilliant a statement of religion and science.
     -- Dick, Fort Worth     
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    What we can see with the naked eye is a fraction of what exists. There are many things that we have not detected or been able to measure or examine because we have no way of perceiving them. But we know they exist. There is more proof of God's existence than there is of the Big Bang, but you prefer to accept the Big Bang and reject God. Well, something went bang, did it not? Therefore, something was there before the bang. What went bang? That infinitetesimaly tiny, itsy-bitsy particle containing all energy, that suddenly expanded to become the universe? And if the universe is an open system, as some scientists prefer, having shrunk and expanded again unknown times, did it start as the big thing and shrink down to the tuny thing? Or did it first expand and then contract? I really think you are out of your monds to reject the existence of God. It's so eay for you to do, so easy and cynical. You don't realize how much you are losing personally by assigning God to oblivion.
     -- David L Rosenthal     
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    Sorry David, science and faith are direct opposites, at least as faith is used in this context. Faith is the belief in things unseen. On the other hand, the word science is from the Latin; "scientia"; having knowledge ...in other words, known and provable. One can have faith in anything, including science, as I have, but that is not the way the word faith is understood. It means dogmatic acceptance of an idea without proof, as a personal God, of which Einstein speaks.
     -- Jack, Green, OH     
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    The question I always have with the explanation of the universe and all that is in it, being so complex it could not have happened by chance, it had to have been created by a supreme being is; how much more complicated must a creator have had to be to think it all up and carry it out, and how could he/she/it have just happened by accident? Was there a super-supreme being first? Scientists speaks of a Big-Bang, not as gospel truth, but as a possible theory until something better comes along, and there are plenty of others out there. They have made their calculations and different scientists have come to different conclusions. Religions, on the other hand, regard their gods as absolute truth and any explanation that tends to refute that is flat wrong. Some still swear by a flat earth, some that the earth is 6000 years old, others that there is a heaven somewhere up in the sky because Jesus ascended into Heaven, etc. They don't let facts stand in their way. Their minds are made up. And the worst part of that is, most, if not all wars, are fought over the differences in religions.
     -- Jack, Green, OH     
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    What many call science today is based more on articles of faith than observed fact. Perfect examples are superstring theory or anthropogenic global warming. String theory predicts things that can neither be observed or refuted by any method. Human induced global warming predicts that there will be more hurricanes, and fewer hurricanes; rising ocean levels, and falling ocean levels; more rain, and less rain; global warming even predicts an ice age. Yet these two examples are both called science. The one is more akin to philosophy, while the other is more akin to voodoo.
     -- Ken, Allyn, WA     
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    No one can covenst me that there is no God, I was ethiens, I come to America I My eye open I see that God do exist He is trying to say is, that the life without God is nothing, Even if you have a joy on your life, you feel something is missing of your life, I think that all human being, should belive in God and worship him, We all can see it the gathik is taking over, and people are going bed, we see that on news everyday what is going on. The Mother earh is crying for help. How come we can't help, what happen to the Humanitarin and to the good old fashion people? This days we don't have time to sit on the table to have a family gather together, All we have left is Thanks Giveing and X-mas,
     -- Beta, Shkoder     
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     -- joe      
     -- Anonymous      
    Humans are a fatally flawed species. One of our greatest flaws is our over-inflated ego; thinking we are SO special among animals! Our true intellect as a species is like unto ants in an ant-farm being kept by a child in his bed room. Any "species" capable of visiting Earth would, even today, appear to be Gods or angels. Likely, humans ARE the prodigy of ancient astronauts; therefore, "made in the image" of gods!
     -- Wm. Tate, Mobile     
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     -- EJR., Mobile      
     
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