Einstein's Deism?

The best sources on the nature of Einstein's deism are Walter Isaacson's recent biography and Einstein's own widely-published essay "What I Believe" from the 1930s.

This topic has been "beaten to death" on a couple of other threads here on R & S within the last month. I'm reproducing part what I wrote, which includes a number of quotations. Einstein used "God" to refer to the beautiful regularity and order that our feeble minds can detect and appreciate, however imperfectly, in the universe, as summarized by the principles of physical science that we call "laws." In this sense, Einstein's god was not the deists' typical architect/creator but something closer to the pantheism of Spinoza.

Einstein did not believe in heaven or hell or immortal souls. He did not believe in a personal god that listens to or answers prayers. I personally think that Einstein used the word “god” too loosely and too freely to describe the universe’s order — it’s 180 degrees different from what most believers mean when they say the word “god.”

Einstein tended to criticize atheists, especially outspoken ones (Were Einstein alive now, I suspect he would like Dan Dennett but criticize Richard Dawkins), and he was consistently tolerant of a wide variety of religious views even though he privately thought many of them were bunk.

Here are my two favorite quotes from Einstein’s own pen about his “religious” outlook:

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man.”

-- Albert Einstein, from his 1930 essay “What I Believe,” quoted in Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio (New York: Broadway Books, 2002), p. 4.

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”

-- Albert Einstein, The Human Side, ed. H. Dukas and

B. Hoffman (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1981).

Isaacson’s book describes an interview that Einstein gave around his 50th birthday in which he answered the question of whether he believed in god [In my opinion, Einstein was a rare example of a theological non-cognitivist who used the word “god” regularly even though he thought that the concept was really beyond the understanding of puny human brains]:

“I’m not an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

I don't know why but I tend to think that Jews

don't make good Atheists. Therefore, I can't

think of Einstein as an Atheist. Perhaps a Deist or Pantheist, but still not a real one of either.

Once a lady asked Einstein if he believed in God. He answered and said that he had spent almost all his life trying to catch God at His work. That's still an ambiguous answer to define Einstein's religious philosophies. Therefore, I choose to stay with the fact that Einstein was Jewish, and a

Jew can hardly afford being a full blown Atheist.

I think Einstein was a true atheist but in the public eyes he didn't want to let it be known he is a true atheist.

It is not a good idea of the times when most believe in god or gods on this planet. Even today, Most famous or not famous atheist want to keep the subject matter in the closet. Example, if your boss is a church goer and faithful, what should you do? Most smart atheists would keep it to themselves and be silent about religious views.

The reason why Einsten able to see god cannot be real is religions claimed there was nothing before creations of anything. If that is true, then what was god if there was nothing?

Basically, this means god was nothing then from nothing came everything. If such nothing has intelligence then why such intelligent need to create something so he can rule over them for eternity. Kind of silly if a god needs to create something so he can rule like an emperor creating a hell to house them and torture them for eternity. Create angels to serve him. Kind of silly for a mighty powerful almost unlimited god.

I bet Einstein think the way I do. It can be easily seen all religions are human inventions. The only thing is most humans do not want to accept this true fact. My guess is humans are using religion to cope with adversity they face in life. This life on earth has suffering and that religion helps heal their minds.

Some really do believe a god is watching and watching and will come to end all evil from existence. These humans are probably have some sort of mental problems or not educated.

To the best of my knowledge, Einstein was a Deist. He did believe in a God, but did not believe that this God took any active role in the course of natural history, other than giving it its initial jump-start. I don't have any sources, or I could get you a better answer... someone on here will have some reliable info for you.

You're right about the part where people say that he believed whatever they believed. Any time anyone gives credit for anything to "God" the world assumes that the person has the same perception of "God" as they themselves do, and this leads to ignorance.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

Einstein's Deism?

I've been reading about Einstein's religious philosophies quite a bit as of late, and I'm curious if anyone has any insight as to what he literally meant by the "god" he would regularly refer to.

In some cases, he seems to mean something identical to "nature" by...

I agree there seems to be a lot of confusion and folks on all sides of the God debate like to claim him as their own. From my particular bias, the quotes I remember most refer to a personal God:

"I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science. My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God."

-- Albert Einstein, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms."

-- Albert Einstein, obituary in New York Times, 19 April 1955

when Einstein postulated that the microcosmic world would be found to be totally deterministic ("God does not play dice with the world") he seemed to have been in error (although there is still some viable debate on this point). Here, Einstein's metaphysical baggage may have been detrimental to his science. It is interesting to note in this regard, though, that scientists have paid greater heed to the generally agreed upon evidence, to the apparent data from nuclear physics, rather than to Einstein's strong wish for a deterministic universe.

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." - Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, November 9, 1930

He was essentially a pantheist who believed in Spinoza's God. Here is a link to a page with several quotes of his (all have been cited) about god and religion.

There is little doubt that when Einstein refereed to god, he meant the unknown. Einstein was an atheist and was criticized by religious people of his time for being one.