ALBERT EINSTEIN 101 



seen. For any one who is pervaded with the sense of 

 causal law in all that happens, who accepts in real 

 earnest the assumption of causality, the idea of a Being 

 who interferes with the sequence of events in the world 

 is absolutely impossible. Neither the religion of fear, 

 nor the social-moral religion, can have any hold on 

 him. A god who rewards and punishes is for him 

 unthinkable, because man acts in accordance with an 

 inner and outer necessity, and would, in the eyes of 

 God, be as little responsible as an inanimate object is 

 for the movements which it makes. 



Science, in consequence, has been accused of under- 

 mining morals — but wrongly. The ethical behavior 

 of man is better based on sympathy, education and 

 social relationships, and requires no support from re- 

 ligion. Man's plight would, indeed, be sad if he had 

 to be kept in order through fear of punishment and 

 hope of rewards after death. 



It isf therefore, quite natural that the churches have 

 always fought against science and have persecuted its 

 supporters. But, on the other hand, I assert that the 

 cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the 

 noblest driving force behind scientific research. No 

 one who does not appreciate the terrific exertions, and 

 above all, the devotion without which pioneer crea- 

 tions in scientific thought cannot come into being, can 

 judge the strength of the feeling out of which alone 

 such work, turned away as it is from immediate prac- 

 tical life, can grow. What a deep faith in the ration- 

 ality of the structure of the world, and what a longing 

 to understand even a small glimpse of the reason re- 

 vealed in the world there must have been in Kepler 



