The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it. Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost. The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal. The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit. Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking.
#A cosmic view of religion william r. halstead free
It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the 'merely personal,' from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment-an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies it was a crushing impression. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. I came-though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents-to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. In his Autobiographical Notes, Einstein wrote that he had gradually lost his faith early in childhood: Early childhood Įinstein was raised by secular Jewish parents and attended a local Catholic public elementary school in Munich. He conceded that "the problem involved is too vast for our limited minds".
Einstein believed the problem of God was the "most difficult in the world"-a question that could not be answered "simply with yes or no". 2.1 Relationship between science and philosophyĮinstein used many labels to describe his religious views, including " agnostic", "religious nonbeliever" and a "pantheistic" believer in " Spinoza's God".As the apostate priest, George Macdonald states, “Good and Evil when they are fully grown, seem the same.” But when he states that, “All who are in Hell, choose it,” the audience responds in audible agreement. As they stumble around, limping on grass that has become spiked shards, they begin to intuit their fate.
Some beg to return to Earth, while others see an opportunity for redemption, if they stay. Some are angry at the world, while others are self-righteous or self-entitled disbelievers. The participants are all on their way to Evil as they pass through a cosmic radiant abyss to arrive at their destination.
The Narrator, described as a poet and a stand in for Lewis, describes their passage. The characters leave Grey Town by bus to find themselves in a sort of limbo between Heaven and Hell challenged by guides and spirits who debate their stories. If you’re already on board with that, you can follow along as 24 different characters, portrayed by four actors, take you on a journey. Carol Halstead in “The Great Divorce” ~ Photo courtesy of Fellowship for the Performing Artsįirst, you must accept the premise that God is omnipotent, all-seeing and all-knowing.