ALBERT EINSTEIN
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| Einstein has been a challenge for
atheists who cannot accept that such a "modern" genius would believe in a
Creator. Some have resorted to his statement that he believed in "Spinoza's God"
to neutralize that possibility. In fact some have stated that Einstein only believed in
"nature," or that Einstein used the term "God" as a
"metaphor" rather than a reality. By believing in Spinoza's God, Einstein is clearly refuting the idea of a "personal" God, in the Judeo-Christian tradition. He, consequently, did not embrace the belief that the Creator sits on a throne in Heaven having a body and human-like features, nor did he believe that God had any reward or punishment in store for humans. Yet he did believe in a conscious, powerful, intelligent, good Being who manifests His greatness within His creation. Understanding this great Being, he stated, was the driving force behind his scientific search. Therefore, the reader is aked to judge for himself or herself by reading the quotes offered below. They should be sufficient in helping the reader to reach his or her own conclusion. (To get a glimpse into what Spinoza believed about God, please read the Spinoza quotes in the "Philosophers" section.) The author
"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals
Himself in the harmony of all being, not in a God who concerns Himself with the fate of
actions of men." |
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| "I'm
not much with people, and I'm not a family man. I want my peace. I want to know how God
created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomena in the spectrum of this
or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details." "You believe in God playing dice , and I in
perfect laws in the world of things existing as real objects, which I try to grasp in a
wildly speculative way"
AThe scientist=s >religious feeling takes the form of a
rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such
superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings
is an utterly insignificant reflection. =@
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JOHANNES KEPLER |
| "O Thou who through the light of nature increasest in us the
longing for the light of Thy Grace that through it we may come to the light of Thy
majesty, I give Thee thanks, Creator and God, that Thou has given me this joy in Thy
creation, and I rejoice in the works of Thy hands. See I have now completed the work to
which I was called. In it I have used all the talents Thou has lent to my spirit. I have
revealed the majesty of Thy works to those men who will read my works, insofar as my
narrow understanding can comprehend their infinite richness." |
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| "Great is our Lord and great is His strength and there is no number to His wisdom. Praise Him heavens, praise Him sun, moon, planets, whatever sense you may use to perceive, whatever tongue to express our Creator. Praise Him heavenly harmonies, praise Him you witnesses of the (now) detected harmonies. Praise also you, my soul, your Lord the Creator as long as I shall be. For from Him and through Him, and in Him is all. Both what is perceived by the senses and by the mind, as much what we don't know at all as what we do know, a minimal part of it. To Him be praise, honor and glory into all eternity. Amen. (Ibid, 361) "The Creator, the
fountain of all wisdom, the approver of perpetual order, the eternal and superessential
spring of geometry and harmonics." "Geometry... coeternal with God...and reflecting in
the Divine mind has supplied God with the examples...for the furnishing of the world so
that it became the best and most beautiful, and (even) also the most similar to the
creator." "But we Christians...know that the eternal and
uncreated Logos who was with God and who is contained by no abode, although He is in all,
(We know) that He has suscepted flesh from the uterus of the...Virgin Mary in the unity of
a person, and that, after the consummation of His ministry in the flesh He has occupied
the heavens as His royal abode, in which as somehow excelling over all other parts of the
world, I.e.through His glory and majesty, also the Heavenly Father is acknowledged to
habitate, and in which He has promised also to His faithful mansions in the house of His
Father."
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