Source: The Huffington Post
“Do scientists pray?”
That’s the question that occupied the thoughts of a sixth-grade Sunday school class at The Riverside Church, and who better to pose it to than one of the best scientific minds of our time, Albert Einstein?
A young girl named Phyllis penned a polite and inquisitive note to the great physicist, and she was probably surprised to receive a considerate reply. The exchange was published in the book “Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children,” edited by Alice Calaprice.
She wrote:
January 19, 1936
My dear Dr. Einstein,
We have brought up the question: Do scientists pray? in our Sunday school class. It began by asking whether we could believe in both science and religion. We are writing to scientists and other important men to try and have our own question answered.
We will feel greatly honored if you will answer our question: Do scientists pray, and what do they pray for?
We are in the sixth grade, Miss Ellis’s class.
Respectfully yours,
Phyllis
He replied a mere five days later, sharing with her his thoughts on faith and science:
January 24, 1936
Dear Phyllis,
I will attempt to reply to your question as simply as I can. Here is my answer:
Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.
However, we must concede that our actual knowledge of these forces is imperfect, so that in the end the belief in the existence of a final, ultimate spirit rests on a kind of faith. Such belief remains widespread even with the current achievements in science.
But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.
With cordial greetings,
your A. Einstein
While the letter doesn’t reveal much about Einstein’s own personal views on religion, he brilliantly manages to capture the the sublime sense of wonder that science can evoke in a way that it’s possible to describe as “religious.”
Josh Jones of Open Culture commented, “I think it’s a moving exchange between two people who couldn’t be further apart in their understanding of the world, but who just may have found some small common ground in considering each other’s positions for a moment.”
Additional Reading
Albert Einstein’s search for God
Dawkins’ False Papal Fatwa: ‘Einstein was a Pantheist and not a Deist?’
Quantum Theory – Sign of a Personal God
Categories: Judaism, Religion & Science, Religion and Science
I liked it, interesting.
I think God is speaking all the time it depends on us humanbeings to tune ourselve to listen to Him. We can make it to happen through perseverance or prayers or to get better results, with the combination of both hard work and prayers. Wisdom is blind if it is not guided by God.
The last sentence above from Qadir Malik sahib seems to be a translation of the promised Messiah’s poetic words in Urdu “Aql baykaar hay gar nayyar e Ilhaam nah ho.”
It says that Wisdom is blind if it is not guided by God. That wisdom is useless unless it is illuminated by the light of revelation.
We have science in service of mankind. We have religion to guide mankind in social behavior and to investigate (and follow) the good laws of nature.
Science is the work of God. Quran is the word of God. There cannot be any difference (conflict) between word of God and work of God. (Allah kay kaam aur Kalaam main koie tazaad nahin.)
People have discussed this subject over ages as to what is the best course to achieve knowledge. Different people gave different sources of knowledge. e.g. the five senses, the experiments etc. But then some speak about the sixth sense too.
The Quran teaches to believe in the seen things and unseen things.
The revelation is the highest source of knowledge, even higher than inspiration. Inspiration may be from inside of a person. The revelation is always from ouutside and from above.
Most scientists do not believe in revelation i.e. Wahi. They also do not believe in unseen things. i.e. Ghaib. (But in fact they do. Because senses give feelings and the feelings can only be felt and cannot be seen.)
Every day, Ghaib is being converted to real of seen things by scientific experiments. Science is the study of nature and nature is created by Allah.
The question whether Scientists pray or not evolves into the belief or disbelief in God. That is what I have discussed above.