EINSTEIN TALKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1062, 28 August 1930, Page 6

EINSTEIN TALKS

RELIGION AND SCIENCE REMARKABLE CONVERSATION A remarkable conversation is recorded in the American magazine “The Forum,” between Albert Eim stein, author of the “Theory of Relativity,” James Murphy, Irish writer, lecturei, and conversationalist, and J. W. X. Sullivan, mathematician, author of many books on science, at Einstein’s home in Berlin. We quote some of the things said by Einstein in the course of the talk.

“Speaking of the spirit that informs modern scientific investigations, I am of the opinion that all the finer speculations in the realm of science spring from a deep religious feeling, and that without such feeling they would not be fruitful. I also believe that this kind of religiousness which makes itself felt today is scientific investigation is the only creative religious activity of our time. The art of today can hardly be looked upon at all as expressive of our religious instincts.”

“A practical philosophy would mean a philosophy of conduct. And t d 0 not think that science can teach men to be moral. I do not believe that a moral philosophy can ever be founded on a scientific basis. You couUJ not, for instance, teach men to face death tiy morrow in defence of scientific truth Science has no power of that type over the human spirit.

“The valuation of life and all its nobler expressions can only come out. of the souVs yearning toward its own destiny. Every attempt to reduce ethics to scientific formulas must fail Of that I am perfectly convinced. Ori the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that scientific study of the higher kinds and general interest in scientific theory have great value in leading men toward a worthier valuation of the things of the spirit. But the content of scientific theory itself offers ao moral foundation for the personal conduct of life.

“I think that this extraordinary in. terest which the general public takes in science today, and the place of high importance which it holds in people's minds, is one of the strongest signs of the metaphysical needs of our time. It shows that people have grown tired of materialism, in the popular sense of the term; it shows that they find life empty and that they are looking toward something beyond mere personal interests. This popular interest in scientific theory brings into plav the higher spiritual faculties, and any thing that does so must be of high importance in the moral betterment of humanity.”

“The intuitive and constructive spiritual faculties must come into play wherever a body of scientific truth is concerned. A body of scientific truth may be built np with the stone and mortar of its. own teachings, logically arranged. But to build it up and to understand it, you must bring into play the constructive faculties of the artist. No house can be built with stone and mortar alone.

“Personally I find it of the highest importance to bring all the various faculties of the understanding into cooperation. By this I mean that our moral leanings and tastes, our sense of beauty and religious instincts, are all tributary forces in helping the reasoning faculty toward its highest

achievements. It is here that the moral side of our nature comes in—that mysterious inner consecration which Spinoza so often emphasised under the name of amor intellectuali.”

“With me, the sense of beauty in Nature and all my artistic leanings

have developed hand in hand with the pursuit of science. And I believe that, without that one the pther is not possible. Certainly in the case of all the really productive minds that I know of, the one has been united with the other. The artistic talents of the men I am thinking of may not always have been consciously developed or formally employed; but these talents or tastes have always been

active in giving urge and direction to the scientific mind.”

“The pathos of distance can be expressed when the mind follows the fast flight of an airplane or the swift ocean liner, or when one thinks of the conquering of distance through the radio. The immediate contemplation of these facts has much the same effect on the mind as the farpointing spires of the cathedrals. And it is true that modern science does supply the mind with an object for contemplative exaltation. “Mankind must exalt itself. Sutsum corda is always its cry. Every cultural striving, whether it be religious or scientific, touches the core of the inner psyche and aims at freedom from the Ego—not the individual Ega alone, but also the mass Ego of humanity. Expression here will always mean exaltation, and that striving is not confined to Baroque mankind alone; it was also in the Greeks, and it has been in every type of mankind that we know of.”