Development of Religion
The following article by Albert Einstein appeared in the New
York Times Magazine on November 9, 1930 pp 1-4. It has been reprinted
in Ideas and Opinions, Crown Publishers, Inc. 1954, pp 36 - 40. It
also appears in Einstein's book The World as I See It,
Philosophical Library, New York, 1949, pp. 24 - 28.
Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with
the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has
to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual
movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force
behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise
the latter may present themselves to us.
Now what are the feelings and
needs that have led men to religious thought and belief in the widest
sense of the words? A little consideration will suffice to show us that
the most varying emotions preside over the birth of religious thought and
experience.
With primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious
notions - fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death. Since at this
stage of existence understanding of causal connections is usually poorly
developed, the human mind creates illusory beings more or less analogous
to itself on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend. Thus
one tries to secure the favor of these beings by carrying out actions and
offering sacrifices which, according to the tradition handed down from
generation to generation, propitiate them or make them well disposed
toward a mortal.
In this sense I am speaking of a religion of fear. This,
though not created, is in an important degree stabilized by the formation
of a special priestly caste which sets itself up as a mediator between the
people and the beings they fear, and erects a hegemony on this basis. In
many cases a leader or ruler or a privileged class whose position rests on
other factors combines priestly functions with its secular authority in
order to make the latter more secure; or the political rulers and the
priestly caste make common cause in their own interests.
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