https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck#
He was a churchwarden from 1920 until his death, and believed in an almighty, all-knowing, beneficent God (although not necessarily a personal one). Both science and religion wage a "tireless battle against skepticism and dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition" with the goal "toward God!"[49]
Planck said in 1944, "As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent spirit [orig. Geist]. This spirit is the matrix of all matter."[51]
- "Das Wesen der Materie" [The Nature of Matter], speech at Florence, Italy (1944) (from Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Abt. Va, Rep. 11 Planck, Nr. 1797)
Planck argued that the concept of God is important to both religion and science, but in different ways: "Both religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations … To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view".[52]
Can we say that, in Max Planck’s views, consciousness equals to God? (ChatGPT, 2025-8-8)
That’s a profound and tricky question. Let’s unpack it carefully.
Short Answer:
No, Max Planck did not equate consciousness directly with “God” in the traditional religious sense.
But he did hold that consciousness is fundamental, matter is derivative, and there is a spiritual dimension at the root of reality — which he personally identified with a form of God, but not necessarily a theistic or personal God.
Let’s clarify with key elements from Planck’s views:
1.
Planck on Consciousness
Planck famously said:
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.”
This places him in the idealist or panpsychist tradition, at least loosely. He believed that mind is not emergent from matter, but rather matter emerges from a deeper reality that includes mind or consciousness.
2.
Planck on God
Planck was a deeply spiritual man, though not conventionally religious. He wrote:
“Both religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations.”
However, his “God” is not necessarily the God of Abrahamic faiths. His God is more akin to a metaphysical principle, a cosmic order or intelligence that underlies the laws of physics.
He admired the regularity of the universe and believed that the laws of nature point to a rational order — and thus to a Mind behind the cosmos.
3.
Consciousness = God?
We can say that:
- Consciousness, for Planck, is primary in the structure of reality.
- God, for Planck, is the ultimate ground of being, possibly identical to the universal rational order or spiritual force that gives rise to both matter and mind.
Thus, Planck may be interpreted (with caution) as pointing toward a kind of “divine consciousness” or “cosmic mind” — but he never explicitly defined God as “consciousness”, nor did he adopt a mystical or pantheistic language like Spinoza or some Vedantic traditions.
So, can we say “Consciousness = God” for Planck?
Not exactly.
But we might say:
For Planck, consciousness is not created by the universe — it is the basis from which the universe arises. And the ground of that consciousness might be what he reverently calls “God.”
In this sense, his worldview borders on a metaphysical idealism, or a kind of scientific spirituality — perhaps not far from the ideas of thinkers like Schrödinger, Pauli, or even David Bohm, who also flirted with a non-materialist metaphysics.
Would you like a comparison between Planck’s view and those of Vedanta, Spinoza, or Bohm?
