Einstein- Theist or Atheist?

[Madhuri]

More Einstein Quotes:

“When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous.”


“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”


(Essentially Vedic philosophy as taught in the Bhagavad Gita):

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the 'Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." - New York Post, 28 November 1972

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

There should be no question as to what Einstein was. Einstein clearly and explicitly stated that he believes in Spinoza's God which is Pantheism.


.

I believe in Einstein's God for that matter.

 

[Troublemane]

I think he was a Pantheist, and a fan of Spinoza.

EDIT: what tathagata said

 

[Caladan]

German Jewish scientist who although did not practice religious rituals has said about his importance of Jewish people, tradition and heritage: "his strongest human bond."

 

[Smoke]

I believe in Einstein's God for that matter.

I'm not even sure what it would mean -- for me -- to believe in Einstein's God. Assuming we accept that he was a pantheist, that just doesn't have any resonance for me. Even when I was a theist, I reached the point where I didn't think anything one could say about God was really true or relevant. If I were a pantheist, I'd definitely feel like kind of an imposter saying I believed in God, since I wouldn't really believe in anything like what most people in our culture mean when they say they believe in God.

To me, it seems that if you tell people you believe in God, they think you mean a personal God. If that's not what you mean, aren't you kind of misrepresenting yourself?

 

[sandandfoam]

Einstein my hat.
If Einstein believed in the bogeyman should I?

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

I'm not even sure what it would mean -- for me -- to believe in Einstein's God. Assuming we accept that he was a pantheist, that just doesn't have any resonance for me. Even when I was a theist, I reached the point where I didn't think anything one could say about God was really true or relevant. If I were a pantheist, I'd definitely feel like kind of an imposter saying I believed in God, since I wouldn't really believe in anything like what most people in our culture mean when they say they believe in God.

To me, it seems that if you tell people you believe in God, they think you mean a personal God. If that's not what you mean, aren't you kind of misrepresenting yourself?

That is usually why when someone asks me if I believe in God my standard reply these days is "which one?"

 

[jmvizanko]

Lets not miss:

"I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist."

Although I agree that, why does it matter?

 

[jmvizanko]

Could, like so many other people, be both.

A bit redundant, though, since pantheism is just atheism.

 

[Walkntune]

Einstein is one of the few who touched the truth of the universe through science. This pretty much sums up his beliefs.
"When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter." - Albert Einstein

 

[LuisDantas]

All scientists touch the truth of the universe using science. That is the whole point of science.

Few if any get the good PR that Einstein did, but that changes nothing.

 

[Midnight Pete]

Einstein was an atheistic Jew.

No, wait-- he was a fire engine!

 

[Storm]

Einstein my hat.
If Einstein believed in the bogeyman should I?

Although I agree that, why does it matter?

I just think it's an interesting historical question, and it was hijacking another thread.

There can be something unseemly about it, though. Some folks seem to want to claim him as some sort of appeal to authority.

 

[sandandfoam]

I just think it's an interesting historical question, and it was hijacking another thread.

There can be something unseemly about it, though. Some folks seem to want to claim him as some sort of appeal to authority.

I agree, as history it's interesting.
As evidence that belief in god/spuds/chocolate is justified I also agree that it's pretty irritating.

 

[MW0082]

Einstein quotes on God(s)


"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."

"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

"God is subtle but he is not malicious."

"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish".

"God always takes the simplest way".

"Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God".

"When the solution is simple, God is answering".

"That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God".

"After a lifetime of exhaustive inquiry into the true nature of the Universe and Reality, I can no longer harbor any reasonable doubts that all the available evidence points invariably and undeniably towards a conclusion that perfectly parallels my initial intuitive reaction to the question of divinity: mainly, that Quagmire is God".

Forgot some...

From a correspondence between Ensign Guy H. Raner and Albert Einstein in 1945 and 1949. Einstein responds to the accusation that he was converted by a Jesuit priest: "I have never talked to a Jesuit prest in my life. I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist." "I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one.You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from religious indoctrination received in youth." Freethought Today, November 2004



"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." From a letter Einstein wrote in English, dated 24 March 1954. It is included in Albert Einstein: The



From a letter Einstein wrote in English, dated 24 March 1954. It is included in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, published by Princeton University Press. Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years (New York: Philosophical Library, 1950), p. 27.



"During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate influence, the phenomenal world... The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of that old conception of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to the Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes... In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vase power in the hands of priests." Albert Einstein, reported in Science, Philosophy and Religion: A Symposium, edited by L. Bryson and



"Thus I came...to a deep religiosity, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached a conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true....Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience...an attitude which has never left me." The Quotable Einstein



"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; 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."

 

[Walkntune]

All scientists touch the truth of the universe using science. That is the whole point of science.

Few if any get the good PR that Einstein did, but that changes nothing.

The materialistic dogma taught as science is far off from the science of Einstein,Tesla, and the truth of reality.Sorry!It is built on equations and not reality.

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." - Albert Einstein

Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.Nikola Tesla

It all falls back under the theory of relativity. Figure out what that really means and you will understand why mainstream views are wrong.I even gave a one sentence summary of it by Einstein.

"When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter." - Albert Einstein

Really think about what is being said here.

 

[Meow Mix]

I ask because I've seen some say Einstein was an Atheist, and of course it's well known he was a Pantheist. So which one is it?

There's a difference between atheism and pantheism?

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

There's a difference between atheism and pantheism?

Dawkins called pantheism sexed up atheism.

 

[Meow Mix]

Dawkins called pantheism sexed up atheism.

Orly?

So if I wear fishnets I'll be a pantheist? Fishnets are sexxeh.

 

[Kerr]

I ask because I've seen some say Einstein was an Atheist, and of course it's well known he was a Pantheist. So which one is it?

I think he was a pantheist or something. Not that I care that much, lol.