Mystery of the Forest

Why is it so important to keep some mystery about us? Some mystery surrounding life itself and the beginnings of the universe and the reasons and purpose of each solitary element of nature?

I admire Albert Einstein not only for his incredible mind, and the creative advancement he contributed to science and art, but also for the openess he had about his religious beliefs in the context of his scientific pursuits and the scientific community of his peers.

I could say that this is very close to what I personally believe about life. The only thing I would change about the following excerpt taken from one of Einstein's essays, is that for me ... the words, "religious" and "religiosity" would be "spiritual" and "spirituality" only because there is so often a connotation of narrowness applied to religion in our world today. When I think of religion, I often think about the atrocities we humans have committed against nature and each other in the name of various world religions. For me, spirituality is a more open, inclusive descriptor of the connections I feel with all of life, including the tiniest grain of sand, a beetle drunk on a flower's nectar or any person on earth no matter what their lot in life, or their creed. may be.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered (spirituality) religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply (spiritual)religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge,a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

-- Albert Einstein