“It is this mythical, or rather this symbolic, content of the religious traditions which is likely to come into conflict with science. This occurs whenever this religious stock of ideas contains dogmatically fixed statements on subjects which belong in the domain of science.”
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Source: Albert Einstein, Religion and Science: Irreconcilable?, The Christian Register, June 1948
About this quote
Einstein locates conflict not between science and every form of religion, but between empirical inquiry and fixed claims about empirical subjects. The distinction gives the passage lasting value in debates that otherwise treat both fields as single, opposing blocks.
When to use it
- Use it when a discussion needs to separate moral or symbolic teaching from factual claims that can be tested against evidence.
- Quote it in a science-education lesson about why dogma becomes a problem when it makes assertions inside an empirical domain.
- Pair it with the rest of the 1948 essay to show that Einstein argued for clearer boundaries rather than simple hostility.