Can someone please explain the fascination with Einstein's faith?

Einstein is the apotheosis of brilliance. It's therefore assumed that he was right about everything, and that if he says there was or wasn't a god, then he's probably right.

It stems from the religious belief that certain people are furnished with the right answers which the rest of us had better listen to. The irony is, this isn't even true about Einstein's knowledge of physics - he resisted the development of quantum theory even as he contributed to it - and he was wrong. How he can be assumed to have some special knowledge on the existence of god is just another mystery.

But an awful lot of assuming goes on around here.

I remember a post like this which indicated little "Einstein's" age around 8 or 9 years old and this happened in class. Like, they brought recorders in class during that time, or Einstein's classmates were diligently transcribing this "conversation" verbatim. And if this were true, this was Einstein with the mind of a child! And does not reflect his religious views in adulthood at all. Is there not a famous figure who is a "God" believer that they could credibly use for this drama?!?! Very typical of theists! Plagiarism and misrepresentation just so they can feed their insatiable need for all their religious drama. fFom Snopes: Origins: For those looking for a quick answer of whether this item is literally true, we'll state upfront that it is not. Nothing remotely like the account made above appears in any biography or article about Albert Einstein , nor is the account congruent with the scientist's expressed views on the subject of religion. His name has simply been inserted into an anecdote created long after his death in order to provide the reading audience with a recognizable figure and thus lend the tale an air of versimilitude.

So far, Albert Einstein has made the single greatest intuitive leap in science toward a mathematical model that reduces the laws of the universe to a single, elegant equation. Even scientists agree that his approach had as much intuition in at as genius.

Basically, math is the most powerful and precise language to describe reality man has invented. In his statement "I want to know god's thoughts" he belied his pantheistic curiosity as to the nature of the universe on a spiritual level AND his desire to be able to write it down in the most concise way possible.

Certainly, in the history of the spiritual quest, this man was one of the most curious, ambitious and successful pilgrims of ALL time.

Becausae Einstien towers above the others in his contribution to understanding the universe and how it works, additionally he was a beloived cahrater, he has become the stero type of the benveolent man of sceince. His work dominates the 20th and now 21 centuries, and he belived in God, who does not play dice with the universe. that staement proves the existence of god, beceuase if there were no God, there would be chaos ot the universe not oreder, god does not play dice witht he universe.

Then again, what about andy Warhol?

Warhol was a practicing Byzantine Rite Catholic. He regularly volunteered at homeless shelters in New York, particularly during the busier times of the year, and described himself as a religious person.[13] Many of his later works contain almost-hidden religious themes or subjects, and a body of religious-themed works was found posthumously in his estate.[13] Warhol also regularly attended Mass during his life, and the priest at Warhol's church, Saint Vincent's, said that the artist went there almost daily.[13] His art is noticeably influenced by the eastern Christian iconographic tradition which was so evident in his places of worship.

Warhol's brother has described the artist as "really religious, but he didn't want people to know about that because [it was] private." Despite the private nature of his faith, in Warhol's eulogy John Richardson depicted it as devout: "To my certain knowledge, he was responsible for at least one conversion. He took considerable pride in financing his nephew's studies for the priesthood."[13]

His art then, say for example campbells soup cans, making icons out of common or materialistic itmes, as a reflection of our culture times, can be seen as saying the same thing John Lennon said,ie, why are you paying so much attention to this or in Lennon's case me?

Mr Warhol being deveotely catholic as it turns out, and making icons out of materilistic items which our culture worshipped (he obviously did not worhsip them); the cosmic joke one might say is on us. Mr Warhol could indeed have been a prophet.

Was einstien a prophet?

E=mc2 (if I were a tagger, I'd put it everywhere, brilliant yet even I can understand it)

Because Einstein was german it made people wonder why he was helping making the A-bomb to blow up japan despite the japanese being on the german side of the war making it likely he was a jew. Marie Curie was a women so wasn't probably respected or taken as seriously in the time when she was alive.

i think it's because people try to suggest that someone who was such a great mind must have a unique perspective on faith to lend creedence to their own arguments.

i personally don't care what his faith was... people can do great things, regardless of their religious beliefs.

but it irritates me that people try to portray einstein as something he wasn't. he was probably best described as a pantheist who didn't believe in a personal god and held the idea of espinoza's god.

he was of jewish heritage, but he didn't practice the jewish faith. he wasn't a christian. he wasn't an atheist.

I'm guessing it's because Einstein is more famous than most and because he was a scientist and because what he actually believed is unclear from his writing.

Lots of people want to claim this genius as one of their own but I'm sure most of us don't care.

It's because religious cults base their doctrine and dogma on childish fairy tales and mythology, so they have nothing to support them. Thus they rely on the logical fallacy, 'appeal to authority', bolstering their ridiculous claims by connecting them to someone with noteriety and generally agreed upon intelligence. It's just another pathetic attempt by the cultists to pass off their delusional faith as something legitimate.

It's a logical fallacy - appeal to authority.

Of course, a physicist isn't automatically qualified to discuss theology.

But it seems to be only christians who bring this up.

Christians want to prove they're not idiots, so they try to point out smart people and call them Christians.

It's rather telling that they feel the need to do so.