100 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



aims, and the nobility and marvellous order which are 

 revealed in nature and in the world of thought. He 

 feels the individual destiny as an imprisonment and 

 seeks to experience the totality of existence as a unity 

 full of significance. Indications of this cosmic religious 

 sense can be found even on earlier levels of develop- 

 ment — for example, in the Psalms and the Prophets 

 of the Old Testament. The cosmic element is much 

 stronger in Buddhism, as, in particular, Schopenhauer's 

 magnificent essays have shown us. 



The religious geniuses of all times have been distin- 

 guished by this cosmic religious sense, which recognizes 

 neither dogmas nor God made in man's image. Con- 

 sequently there cannot be a church whose chief doc- 

 trines are based on the cosmic religious experience. It 

 comes about, therefore, that we find precisely among 

 the heretics of all ages men who were inspired by this 

 highest religious experience. Often they appeared to 

 their contemporaries as atheists, but sometimes also 

 as saints. Viewed from this angle, men like Democ- 

 ritus, Francis of Assisi and Spinoza are near to one 

 another. 



How can this cosmic religious experience be com- 

 municated from man to man, if it cannot lead to a 

 definite conception of God, or to a theology? It seems 

 to me that the most important function of art and of 

 science is to arouse and keep alive this feeling in those 

 who are receptive. 



Thus we reach an interpretation of the relation of 

 science to religion which is very different from the 

 customary view. From the study of history one is 

 inclined to regard religion and science as irreconcilable 

 antagonists; and this for a reason that is very easily 



