An Evening Everyone Agrees, Is

It Is Difficult Even To Attach A Precise Meaning To The Term "scientific Truth." So Different Is The Meaning Of The Word "truth" According To Whether We Are Dealing With A Fact Of Experience, A Mathematical Proposition Or A Scientific Theory. "religious Truth" Conveys Nothing Clear To Me At All.

Conscious Man, To Be Sure, Has At All Times Been Keenly Aware That Life Is An Adventure, That Life Must, Forever, Be Wrested From Death.

The Word 'god' Is For Me Nothing More Than The Expression And Product Of Human Weaknesses, And Religious Scripture A Collection Of Honourable, But Still Primitive Legends Which Are Nevertheless Pretty Childish. No Interpretation, No Matter How Subtle, Can (for Me) Change This.

During The Youthful Period Of Mankind's Spiritual Evolution Human Fantasy Created Gods In Man's Own Image, Who, By The Operations Of Their Will Were Supposed To Determine, Or At Any Rate To Influence, The Phenomenal World. Man Sought To Alter The Disposition Of These Gods In His Own Favour By Means Of Magic And Prayer.

A Human Being Is A Part Of The Whole Called By Us Universe, A Part Limited In Time And Space. He Experiences Himself, His Thoughts And Feeling As Something Separated From The Rest, A Kind Of Optical Delusion Of His Consciousness. This Delusion Is A Kind Of Prison For Us, Restricting Us To Our Personal Desires And To Affection For A Few Persons Nearest To Us. Our Task Must Be To Free Ourselves From This Prison By Widening Our Circle Of Compassion To Embrace All Living Creatures And The Whole Of Nature In Its Beauty.