xvi CONTENTS 



cause, is responsible for unbelief and fatalism — 

 But our lives are not purposeless — Biology denies 

 it — A universe without purpose means a universe 

 without God or good — Finally, it is the assurance 

 of faith that makes life worth while. 



VI The Meeting-Place of Science and 



Religion by Albert Einstein . . 91 



Sometimes we can divine a purpose in our being 

 on earth — Man is here for the sake of others — 

 Outer and inner lives built on the labors of the liv- 

 ing and the dead — No freedom for us in the philo- 

 sophical sense — We act from inner necessity — Folly 

 to ponder over reason for one's existence — Ideals 

 of goodness, beauty and truth — Comfort and hap- 

 piness not the goal — Outward success contempti- 

 ble. . . . Not a horse for single harness — Never 

 belonged to his own family — Isolation may be bit- 

 ter: but it has its compensations — no one should 

 be idolized — Irony of fate to receive so much un- 

 merited admiration — To reach the goal one person 

 must carry the responsibility — Social distinctions 

 rest on force — Degeneracy follows violence — The 

 President of the United States has enough power — 

 The personality, not the nation, is the true value — 

 The odious militia — The soldier received his great 

 brain by mistake — School and press have corrupted 

 the common sense of nations. . . . The most beau- 

 tiful thing is the mysterious — Lament for him 

 whose eyes are closed — The mystery of life has 

 given rise to religion — "In this sense I belong in 

 the ranks of the devoutly religious men" — We do 

 not wish a God who reflects human frailty — Can- 

 not believe in personal survival of death — Enough 

 to contemplate the mystery of life. . . . Need, es- 

 cape from pain, determine men's acts and thoughts 

 — This is the source of religion — Fear, the origin 

 of primitive religion — The gods must be placated 

 — A priestly class stabilizes this religion. . . . The 

 religion of social feelings and morality — Longing 

 for guidance, love, succor at the root of the moral 

 and social conception of God — God is the com- 

 forter, the protector — The evolution of religion in 

 the Bible — Common to all types of religion is God 

 made after the human likeness — Only exceptionally 

 gifted men rise above these types — In these is the 

 third interpretation: the cosmic religious sense — 

 Here the individual feels the vanity of human de- 

 sires; he perceives the nobility of nature — In the 

 Psalms and the Prophets this higher conception 

 is disclosed — The cosmic religious sense has dis- 



