I came across a series of quotes from four world renowned scientists and one philosopher preeminent in modern rationalism, on their thoughts of Jesus Christ. Most are Nobel Laureates.
1. ALBERT EINSTEIN, Nobel Laureate in Physics. Einstein's attitude towards Jesus Christ was expressed in an interview, which the great scientist gave to the American magazine The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929):
SEP: “To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?"
EINSTEIN: "As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. Have you read Emil Ludwig’s book on Jesus? Emil Ludwig’s Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot."
SEP: "You accept the historical Jesus?"
EINSTEIN: "Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.�
2. ROBERT MILLIKAN, Nobel Laureate in Physics, “The practical preaching of modern science -- and it is the most insistent and effective preacher in the world today -- is extraordinarily like the preaching of Jesus. Its keynote is service, the subordination of the individual to the good of the whole. Jesus preached it as a duty -- for the sake of world-salvation. Science preaches it as a duty -- for the sake of world-progress. Jesus also preached the joy and the satisfaction of service: ‘He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.� (Millikan, as cited in Kargon 1982)
3. ARTHUR COMPTON, Nobel Laureate in Physics, “Jesus’ teaching and the example of His life form the most reliable guide that I have found for shaping my own actions. It is because I accept His leadership that I call myself a Christian. I see Him as the Everest among the world's many high mountains.� (Compton 1956)
4. BLAISE PASCAL, founder of Hydrostatics and Hydrodynamics, “Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride and before whom we humble ourselves without despair.� (Pascal 1910) and, “Without Jesus Christ man must be in vice and misery; with Jesus Christ man is free from vice and misery; in Him is all our virtue and all our happiness. Apart from Him there is but vice, misery, darkness, death, despair.� (Pascal 1910)
5. SPINOZA, Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the chief exponent of modern rationalism. Spinoza looked on Jesus Christ as a man of transcendent moral genius, standing out above Moses and the prophets. Spinoza looked on Jesus as a Son of God, but not as a God. In discussing the nature of prophetic vision he wrote, “I believe not that any man ever came to that singular height of perfection but Christ, to whom the ordinances of God that lead men to salvation were revealed, not in words or visions, but immediately: so that God manifested himself to the apostles by the mind of Christ, as formerly to Moses by means of a voice in the air. And therefore the voice of Christ may be called, like that which Moses heard, the voice of God. In this sense we may likewise say that the wisdom of God, that is, a wisdom above man’s, took man’s nature in Christ, and that Christ is the way of salvation.� (Spinoza, as cited in Frederick Pollock's, Spinoza: His Life and Philosophy, Adamant Media Corporation, Boston, 2000)
(from my friend, Glenn, as he posted it in part in our group where we debate all kinds of topics. Here is a link to
the group.
Take care, Ocean
