The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- James asserts that a God recognized by science must be a universal law‑giver, not one who tailors processes to individuals.
- In plain terms
- Science envisions a God as an impersonal law‑maker, not a personal benefactor.
- What can you take from it?
- Scientific conceptions of God exclude individualized divine intervention.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can a personal God coexist with scientific laws?
- What does a non‑personal God mean for faith?
Another view
It reduces the rich diversity of religious conceptions to a single model.
More from William James
If things are ever to move upward, some one must take the first step, and assume the risk of it. No one who is not willing to try charity, to try non-resistanc…
Permalink to quote #81 Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought. When we survey the whole field of…
Permalink to quote #83 We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy,…
Permalink to quote #80
Related quotes
Because you cannot see him, God is everywhere.
Yasunari KawabataYasunari Kawabata quote #4 Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas quote #9 God is not the author of all things, but of good only.
PlatoPlato quote #24