It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion.
Interpretation
The feeling of mystery, even when accompanied by fear, is a fundamental aspect that inspired the development of religious beliefs.
In this quote, Albert Einstein suggests that the profound experience of encountering the unknown or the mysterious, which can evoke feelings of fear, is a key catalyst for the creation and foundation of religious beliefs. He highlights the interplay between fear and curiosity, indicating that the mysteries of existence prompt humanity to seek answers, often through the lens of religion.
In practice
During a lecture on the origins of faith, one might reference Einstein's quote to illustrate how uncertainty shapes human belief.
I cannot then believe in this concept of an anthropomorphic God who has the powers of interfering with these natural laws. As I said before, the most beautiful and most profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science.
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
In the middle of adversity there is great opportunity.
I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.
To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.
Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.
Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.
If you miss the bus, miss the train, you’d be left behind. So everyone says, let’s get on the train, let’s get on the bus and go faster and get rich... I just didn’t like that kind of lifestyle. I love to read books, to listen to music.
You ought not attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither ought you attempt to cure the body without the soul.
The law has no claim to human respect. It has no civilizing mission; its only purpose is to protect exploitation.
What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person.
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