Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Openurmind
I read that Einstein was once asked if he as a pantheist:
Your question is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvellously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza’s Pantheism. I admire even more his contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate things. Quoted by Peter Hitchens in Modern Age.

57 posted on 02/09/2019 4:52:21 PM PST by aspasia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]


To: aspasia

Absolutely. There is much we do not understand and frankly may never understand. All we can do is gain awareness and get as close as we can to understanding. It is all much bigger than all of us or our own personal limited doctrines.

We are but infants just learning to walk in the true scope of spiritual reality. There are other realms we have yet to explore. And if we do not dull our awareness with ignorance we can.


58 posted on 02/09/2019 5:04:53 PM PST by Openurmind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson