“It was the experience of mystery —even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds…”

Fundamentalist religionists have seized upon those few words of professor Einstein to point to endorsement of religion by a man of science and deep thought. If that were where the good professor’s words left off it would leave one wondering and a bit confused about some of the other things attributed to this powerhouse of scientific discovery. But if we do some research we find that what we were led to believe was the end of this particular quote was not the end at all. Professor Einstein continued on with more to say on the subject of religion:

“ — it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. 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.

© 2006 R. Leland Waldrip