Christians, Are Atheists Smarter Than Albert Einstein?

I did a little research. Eistein was closest to a panentheist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism

"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."

"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. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations."

These are quotes of Einstein. I think he did believe in a God. Just not the God that most Christians view. I believe very closely to both Einstein and Spinoza, although my belief differs slightly. I think God is transendent of religion. You can find him with religion, but I don't believe its necessary and with religion you get the prejudices of the past writers. (Homophobia/creationism/selfrighteousness etc etc) Actually Einsteins God is more closesly related to the Native Americans "Great Spirit" than it is the Abrahamic God.

I would not claim to be more intelligent than Albert Einstein. I will also not claim, like so many do, to know what Einstein believed. I can not read his mind or ask him about his beliefs personally, so I can only draw conclusions from the historical records we have regarding Einstein. The research I have done indicates that Einstein was a deist, not a theist. This means that Einstein believed in a creator of the universe, but did not believe in a personal, theistic god. Therefore, while his opinion differs from atheists, it also differs from Christians. So do Christians think they are smarter than Einstein?

On a side not, most atheists I know scoff at a theistic viewpoint. We view a deistic viewpoints as a reasonable, albeit unsubstantiated viewpoint. We admit deistic viewpoints are possible, but they lack evidence. It is theistic viewpoints, such as Christianity, that are so ridiculous that we feel safe in claiming intellectual superiority!

Albert Einstein was a Pandeist (Deism/Pantheism), meaning he did believe there was an intelligent designer. Are Christians saying that they're smarter than Einstein as well? He did believe in a god, but not the Abrahamic one. This is what he said.

"I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Also, read up on "appeal to authority" fallacy.

There is so many things wrong with your logic, I wouldn't know where to begin, but here's my attempt:

1. It takes the most rudimentary skills in critical thinking to know that the burden of proof lies on the person making the assertion that something is true. Imagine if in court the defendant had to prove his innocence? "Sir, prove you didn't rape the lady"

2. It doesn't take faith to not believe. There are millions of things that you don't believe in. You don't believe in fairies, Santa Clause, genies, elves, talking snowman, ext, ext. Does it take any faith to not believe in those?

3. Albert Einstein was not a Christian. Even if he were, it would be irrelevant because there is still no scientific data to support a god, much less a Christian god.

Are we smarter than Einstein? Most of us are not.

Does it take an Einstein to realize that no proof exist to demonstrate a god exists? Nope.

But logic is not your style.

Appealing to inappropriate authority suits you much better.

This is what gets believers a bad name

" Since he believed in the existence of a Supreme Intelligence behind the universe"

No he didn't

If you had taken the trouble to check what he ACTUALLY said you would have found he specifically said this is NOT what he believes

But as usual christians never bother with facts.

If you cant be bothered to check facts what do you care WHAT people think.cos you certainly dont care what einstein thought

I don't know any Albert Einstein who happened to INVENT physics or BE a christian. The man who develop the general relativity theory and won a Nobel prize for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, was in fact a Jew

You're just demagoguing, which is unproductive and drives people apart. Lots of smart people believe in God, and lots of smart people don't believe in God. Einstein lived a long time ago and we didn't know as much as we do now. Stephen Hawking recently published a book in which he concludes that there is no need for God to exist.

I personally have trouble believing in God, although I kind of wish I did, because I'm not stupid and I can see the value and meaning it adds to people's lives. I went through a phase where I, like you, thought I had all the answers and went around antagonizing people who disagreed with me. But now I accept that different people believe different things, and my life is better for it.

But if you want me to argue back, I'd say burden of proof is on you to prove that God DOES exist, not on the atheists to prove that he doesn't. (Can you prove I don't have a dragon in my garage? You're not allowed to look, but I swear he's there.)

1) It's a complete lie that it takes faith to not believe. We know of nothing that needs a supernatural explanation, hence it's perfectly rational not to believe in the supernatural.

2) Albert Einstein was fond of speaking poetically. He never believed in a "God" in the sense most people would understand it.

“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

3) Even if Einstein had agreed with you, which he did not, Einstein is not some kind of talisman that you can wear around your neck vindicating your claims. He was a product of his time and had his limitations like all of us. It is generally accepted among physics professors that a physics major today understands the theory of relativity better than Einstein did.

Well Albert Einstein believed in the god of Spinoza.

Albert Einstein spent his whole life figuring out things I learned in my first semester of physics. He was a remarkable mind for his time, but compare the peak of his knowledge to the knowledge of any current day scientist and he'd be far far behind.