Einstein's cosmic religion

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The term Cosmic Religion / Cosmic Religion goes back to Albert Einstein (1879–1955), the great physicist and Nobel Prize winner. In his later years he often spoke out on issues relating to society , peace policy , ethics , philosophy and religion . The term describes the religious feeling of admiration for the cosmos, gratitude and responsibility. The term “cosmic consciousness” existed before Einstein. He was shaped by the religious philosopher Richard Maurice Bucke (1837-1902). In it he describes forms of religious experience.

COSMIC RELIGION was the title of an essay by Albert Einstein that appeared in 1931. In it he outlines his religious philosophy. The essay appeared in the book Einstein along with other texts . Cosmic Religion with Other Opinions and Aphorisms. The original German title of the article was Religion und Wissenschaft . It first appeared on November 11, 1930 in the Berliner Tageblatt .

Einstein's theory of religion: fear religion, moral religion, cosmic religion

Albert Einstein (1933)

The basic idea: Everything that is done and thought up by people is aimed at satisfying felt needs. What are these feelings and needs? First: fear and fear. Second: longing for guidance, protection and love. Third: desire for unity and meaning. So there are three levels of religion: The first level is the fear religion. People fear hunger , wild animals , disease , death . They imagine human-like beings and gods on which these experiences depend. Through rituals , people want to please them. Usually a caste of priests is formed, which mediates between people and gods. She often associates with the political class. - The second level is the moral religion. Man experiences father, mother and leaders as mortal and fallible. The longing for guidance, love and support creates a social and moral concept of God. Fear religion and moral religion usually combine to form a mixed type. - The third level rarely occurs: "... only particularly rich individuals and particularly noble communities" achieve "a third level of religious experience ... I want to call it cosmic religiosity." Einstein's "cosmic religion" feels obliged to knowledge, humanity and the feeling of being connected to all life in the cosmos.

See also History of Religion and Sociocultural Evolution

Einstein, the "deeply religious unbeliever"

“You become a deeply religious unbeliever. (This is a somewhat new kind of religion.) ”, Wrote Einstein in a letter from 1954 to Hans Mühsam . - Einstein's conception of religion is closely related to his life. He grew up in a liberal Jewish family with no religious rules. At the time of elementary school he received instruction in Judaism . He becomes religious, adheres to the rules of his religion, does not eat pork , writes and sets songs to the glory of God. His “deep religiosity” comes to an “abrupt end” at the age of 12: By reading popular science books he came to the conviction that much of the stories in the Bible could not be true. According to Einstein, his distrust of any kind of authority grew out of this experience. For Einstein, this freedom of thought, the courage to take one's own path, becomes characteristic. The lost religious paradise of youth gives way to a second paradise, the paradise of science. He feels close to the Jews as a tribal brother, but remains hostile to their faith, calls himself non-denominational and becomes a "deeply religious unbeliever". His third paradise arises from the fusion of religion and physics. He justifies his “cosmic religion” as follows: Man feels “the sublimity and wonderful order that reveals itself in nature and in the world of thought. The religious geniuses of all times were distinguished by this cosmic religiosity, which knows no dogmas and no God who is thought in the image of man. There can therefore also be no church whose main teaching content is based on cosmic religiosity. So it happens that, especially among the heretics of all time, we find people who were imbued with this highest religiosity and who often appeared to their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes as saints. From this point of view, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi and Spinoza are close to one another. "

Einstein likes to use religious language as a matter of course. For him, religious language as a symbolic language is the legitimate expression of enlightened religiosity. Examples: “God doesn't care about our math difficulties. He integrates empirically. ”-“ Whatever there is in the world about God and the good must work through us and express itself. We cannot stand by and let God do the work. ”His sentence that God does not roll the dice became particularly well known:“ Theory delivers a lot, but it hardly brings us any closer to the mystery of the old. In any case, I am convinced that he does not roll the dice. "

Einstein, physicist and metaphysicist

Einstein's position is judged differently depending on the viewer's point of view. Some call his position atheistic , others pantheistic , others panentheistic . He explicitly refers to Spinoza's god. Spinoza's pantheism was seen as heretical and atheistic in the eyes of Jewish and Christian orthodoxy .

In no case can Einstein's concept of God be equated with a personal God. This is "... nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses ..." and "incarnation of primitive superstition".

His deity is the universal cosmic spirit. This can include personal matters. Nothing stands in the way of a transpersonal interpretation. But it cannot be described or dogmatized with human categories. His answer to the question of a New York rabbi in 1929 “Do you believe in God?” Became famous: “I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the legal harmony of beings, not in a God who deals with fate and actions of people. "

Spinoza wanted to combine rationality and mysticism . You can feel this concern at Einstein too. Rationality paired with reverence for life is the quintessence of his religious philosophy. "The mystery of the eternity of life and the awareness and the premonition of the wonderful structure of beings are enough for me ..."

Here he meets with the position of his famous contemporary Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965), Nobel laureate, doctor, theologian and philosopher, who describes reverence for life as the basic feeling of all religion.

With the term "cosmic religion", Einstein developed a new definition of religion that suits many: for some as a corrective and demarcation from dogmatizing religions, for others as a correction to dogmatizing atheism and materialism. Cosmic religiosity enables a relaxed and constructive relationship to different worldview drafts. Einstein's concept of religion can thus contribute to the de-ideologization of religions and thus to world peace.

The term “Cosmic Religion” / “Cosmic Religion” is closely connected with the name Einstein, but he sees himself in the long tradition and names Moses , the Prophets , Jesus , Buddha , Francis of Assisi , Spinoza and others as guarantors of his religious beliefs Feeling. Einstein did not want to found a new religion, but wanted to give his religiosity a suitable name. "Cosmic religion" / "cosmic religion" is a religion for people who are skeptical of hierarchical institutions and dogmatic doctrines, but very much an obligation (Latin religio from re-ligio = connection, connection, obligation) towards the cosmos and the world as a whole feel: For her, ethical behavior is based on the standards of reason and humanity as well as responsibility for creation. Rituals such as weddings, funeral ceremonies etc. are cared for independently, depending on the culture, with elements from secular and religious traditions.

The idea of ​​a meta-religion that seeks a simple and generally accepted common denominator or basic consensus of all religions that all religions can agree to is not new. Many philosophers and liberal theologians have called for it. Declared goals: No fixed rituals, overcoming all racial, cultural, religious and social prejudices, building a just world through politics, economics and culture, realizing equality between the sexes, developing a constructive relationship between religion and science.

Einstein has found a catchy, understandable name for these goals. He speaks the language of science and enjoys the highest authority as a scientist and thinker. He did not appear as a salvation preacher, he expressly rejected religious authorities. He himself was anything but an example of virtue. For some, this is a credibility bonus, but certainly not for the vast majority. Most people feel more comfortable in large groups with clear majorities and strong authorities. The “cosmic religiosity” therefore remains rather an option for “Einspänner” (Einstein) and minorities. It is an example of an ethically high self-reliant religion.

Einstein quotes on the subject

  • "The essence of religion for me is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of the other, to be happy with him and to suffer with him."
  • "For me, the mystery of the eternity of life and the awareness and the premonition of the wonderful structure of beings as well as the sincere striving for the understanding of even the smallest part of the reason that manifests in nature is enough."
  • "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
  • "My convictions are related to those of Spinoza: admiration for beauty and belief in the logical simplicity of order and harmony, which we can humbly and only imperfectly grasp."
  • “For Spinoza, the psychic and the physical are just different manifestations of a uniform legal reality. As scientific knowledge, this view has become common property of all spiritually striving people; the better one understands the workings of the universe, the closer one comes to God. "
  • "Religiosity lies in the ecstatic amazement at the harmony of natural law, in which such a superior reason reveals itself that all meaningful human thought and arrangement is, on the other hand, a completely void reflection ... Undoubtedly this feeling is closely related to that which the religiously creative natures of all times has fulfilled. "
  • “My religion consists in my humble admiration of an unlimited spiritual power that shows itself in even the smallest things that our frail and weak minds can grasp. The deep, emotional conviction of the presence of a spiritual intelligence that opens up in the incomprehensible universe forms my idea of ​​God. "
  • "The further man's spiritual development progresses, the more it seems to me that the path to true religiosity does not lead through the fear of existence, fear of death and blind faith, but rather through the pursuit of reasonable knowledge."
  • “I am not a 'free thinker' because I think that this is mainly an attitude of defiance against the naive belief in God. My religious feeling lies in the admiration of the harmony that is shown in the laws of nature. "

literature

  • Albert Einstein: On Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and Aphorisms. Dover Publications, Mineola NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-486-47010-8 .
  • Carl Seelig (Ed.): Albert Einstein: My worldview. 31st edition. Ullstein TB, 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-36728-6 .
  • A. Calaprice (Ed.): Einstein says. Quotes ideas thoughts. 7th edition. Piper, Munich / Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-492-22805-4 .
  • M. Jammer: Einstein and Religion, Physics and Theology. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1996, ISBN 0-691-10297-X .
  • M. Jammer among others: Einstein and religion. Univ.Verlag Konstanz, Konstanz 1995, ISBN 3-87940-484-4 .
  • P. Heigl: Einstein, physicist, metaphysicist, mystic. In: P. Heigl: Religion and Religions. Essence and core. Offenbach 2006, ISBN 3-89749-581-3 , p. 64 ff.
  • Th. J. Kardos: Cosmic Religion. Victoria BC Canada 2009, ISBN 978-1-4269-1694-6 .
  • E. Schwarz: Albert Einstein - Albert Schweitzer. Friends in their search for truth, humanity and peace. Your correspondence. Ed. German Aid Association for the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene eV, Frankfurt 1998, OCLC 257357624 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Einstein: Cosmic Religion with Other Opinions and Aphorisms. Covici Peace, New York 1931.
  2. ↑ Carl Seelig (Ed.): Albert Einstein: Mein Weltbild. 31st edition. Ullstein TB, 2010, p. 195. (first edition 1934)
  3. ↑ Carl Seelig (Ed.): Albert Einstein: Mein Weltbild. 31st edition. Ullstein TB, 2010, p. 18 f.
  4. ↑ A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 185.
  5. ↑ Carl Seelig (Ed.): Albert Einstein: Mein Weltbild. 31st edition. Ullstein TB, 2010, p. 19f.
  6. ↑ a b A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 182.
  7. ↑ a b A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 180.
  8. ^ Albert Einstein, Hedwig and Max Born, Correspondence 1916–1955. Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1972, pp. 97f.
  9. ↑ Einstein, Albert, letter to Eric Gutkind of January 3, 1954, Einsteinbrief, complete transcription on reddit .com, see also Wikiquote
  10. ↑ a b A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 175.
  11. ↑ A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 177.
  12. ↑ Carl Seelig (Ed.): Albert Einstein: Mein Weltbild. 31st edition. Ullstein TB, 2010, p. 10.
  13. ↑ Albert Einstein: How I see the world. In: Carl Seelig (Ed.): Albert Einstein: My worldview. 31st edition. Ullstein TB, 2010, p. 12.
  14. ↑ a b A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 187.
  15. ↑ A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 178.
  16. ↑ A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 181.
  17. ↑ A. Calaprice (ed.): Einstein says: Quotes, ideas, thoughts. Piper, 2005, p. 183.

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