Here’s a quote, supposedly from Albert Einstein, that can be found in many Buddhist websites, articles, and books:
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
Many people have pointed out that there’s no evidence that Einstein said this. It’s not in any of his talks, articles, correspondence, etc. Its origins, however, have been mysterious, and yesterday I set out on a quest to find where this quote came from and how people came to think of it as something Einstein said.
To my surprise, I was successful. I discovered that the quote arose from a careless (perhaps willfully careless) reading of a paraphrase of an article Einstein wrote on “cosmic religion.” The paraphrase was written by Masunaga Reihō, in his 1958 book, “A Soto Approach to Zen,” which offered the first translations of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō.
I’ve no idea what that statement means, but it doesn’t really matter since your comment is irrelevant to the subject of this thread, which is not about the validity of Einstein’s views (or fake Einstein’s views) about religion.
Great job in following that trail and debunking the quote! People carelessly throw these misquotes around all the time and it’s unfortunate and harmful. I wouldn’t want anyone quoting me as saying things that I didn’t say and I’m sure that anyone would feel the same if it happened to them. I’ve had couples ask me to include mis-quoted readings in their wedding ceremonies and I always gently point out from who it originated.
Thank you. My first assumption when I see a quote online is to assume it’s fake until proven otherwise. That’s not always correct (although it has been twice in the last few days with Fake Leo XIV quotes) but it’s the safest course of action. It creates more work, but it’s good work to do.
