The weak point of his conception is, however, this, that those convictions which are necessary and determinant for our conduct and judgments cannot be found solely along this solid scientific way. On this point one must agree unreservedly with the extreme rationalist. It is true that convictions can best be supported with experience and clear thinking. But it is just as well to state a thesis starkly and nakedly, if one wants to clear up one’s mind as to its nature. One will probably find but rarely, if at all, the rationalistic standpoint expressed in such crass form for any sensible man would see at once how one-sided is such a statement of the position. According to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people’s education, must serve that end exclusively. The opinion prevailed among advanced minds that it was time that belief should be replaced increasingly by knowledge belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed.

Section Iĭuring the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief.

This article covers Einstein’s Science And Religion.

Science and religion conflict quotes