爱因斯坦相信一种宇宙宗教感觉(cosmic religious feeling),但反对一个人格化的神。他曾说:未来的宗教将是一种宇宙宗教,而佛教包括了对于未来宇宙宗教所期待的特征:它超越人格化的神,避免教条和神学,涵盖自然和精神两方面,它更是基于对所有自然界和精神界事物作为一个有意义整体的体验而引发的宗教意识。佛教正符合了这个描述。如果有任何能够应付现代科学需求的宗教,那必定是佛教。
“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. “Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.“- Albert Einstein
[1954, from Albert Einstein:The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press]
出自1954年普林斯顿大学出版社出版的《Albert Einstein: The Human Side》一书