Thinking Is Hard Work; That's Why So

E Idea Of A Personal God Is Quite Alien To Me And Seems Even Naive. However, I Am Also Not A "freethinker" In The Usual Sense Of The Word Because I Find That This Is In The Main An Attitude Nourished Exclusively By An Opposition Against Naive Superstition. My Feeling Is Insofar Religious As I Am Imbued With The Consciousness Of The Insuffiency Of The Human Mind To Understand Deeply The Harmony Of The Universe Which We Try To Formulate As "laws Of Nature." It Is This Consciousness And Humility I Miss In The Freethinker Mentality. Sincerely Yours, Albert Einstein.

Man's Will, Sustained By An Indominable Conviction, Is Much More Powerful Than Material Forces That Seem Insurmountable.

It Seems To Me That The Idea Of A Personal God Is An Anthropological Concept Which I Cannot Take Seriously. I Feel Also Not Able To Imagine Some Will Or Goal Outside The Human Sphere. My Views Are Near Those Of Spinoza: Admiration For The Beauty Of And Belief In The Logical Simplicity Of The Order Which We Can Grasp Humbly And Only Imperfectly. I Believe That We Have To Content Ourselves With Our Imperfect Knowledge And Understanding And Treat Values And Moral Obligations As A Purely Human Problem-the Most Important Of All Human Problems.

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.

The Desire For Guidance, Love, And Support Prompts Men To Form The Social Or Moral Conception Of God. This Is The God Of Providence, Who Protects, Disposes, Rewards, And Punishes; The God Who, According To The Limits Of The Believer's Outlook, Loves And Cherishes The Life Of The Tribe Or Of The Human Race, Or Even Of Life Itself; The Comforter In Sorrow And Unsatisfied Longing; He Who Preserves The Souls Of The Dead. This Is The Social Or Moral Conception Of God.