Captain Picard thought you might help me with the comprehension of these quotes by Einstein. Please explain?

Question

Einstein said "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind"

and he also

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

I am perplexed.
Did Einstein believe in the existence of god or not.
To what degree did Einstein believe in god.

n9wff:
excellent story by Einstein.
I googled it and found out that it is fiction.
I don't know how the myth got started,but I included this website for you to checkout.
http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp
The definition of cold is the relative absence of heat and darkness is the absence of light;I looked up these defintions in the dictionary.
Such a shame it isn't true.

Answer 1

Einstein believed in an impersonal deific force as revealed by nature. He did not believe in a deific being. He was neither religiously Jewish nor Zorastrian as some claim.

Answer 2

Einstein said this:

"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."

He also said:

"The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive."

I personally agree with these quotes. But let me add this: appeals to authority are a form of logical fallacy. Einstein's views on the possibility of a god have no relevance on whether there actually is a god or not.

Answer 3

To Isis

Cut the B.S. If Einstein equated the universe with God, what he actually was saying was "I want to know the universe's thought's." Even if you don't, Einstein knew the difference between the two. I do hope that all advanced physicists are not as unthinking as you.

As to the question, two points:

1) Einstein was Jewish. He may not have been a practicing Jew, but he did have Jewish heritage. God is a big part of that heritage.

2) Can we not take the man, who most revere as the most intellegent mind in history, at his word?

Answer 4

Aries:various those well-known impulses, no longer surely defined in words, are the springs of guy's movements. (movements=aries) Taurus:i've got self assurance that an uncomplicated and unassuming way of existence is ultimate for each guy or woman, ultimate the two for the physique and the strategies. (taurus= calm and a house-physique) Gemini:I have not have been given any particular expertise. i'm in basic terms passionately curious. maximum cancers:look deep into nature, after which you will understand each and every thing extra useful. Leo:real artwork is characterised via an impossible to stand as much as urge in the innovative artist. Virgo:All this is efficacious in human society relies upon on the possibility for progression accorded the guy. (seems virgo-ish) Libra:each and every person ought to be respected as a guy or woman, yet no person idolized. (libra honest stuff) Scorpio:tension consistently attracts adult men of low morality. (lol, scorpios like tension) Sagittarius:All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the comparable tree. (huge thinking) Capricorn:A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a guy could desire to be happy? (ordinary residing) Aquarius: a question that normally drives me hazy: am I or are the others loopy? (of their own worldwide) Pisces:mind's eye is extra significant than understanding. (pisces are all ingenious)

Answer 5

This is not enough information to determine how strongly Einstein believed in God.

But it looks like he was a believer.

What is your problem understanding these quotes they are very simple and self explanatory. Science with out religion is far more than lame it is remorseless, dangerous, aimless. Religion with out science ignores all the tangible manifestations that prove its value.

Very simply put honest true ideas.

Answer 6

Einstein was a believer in God. He was Jewish. He thought that any attempt to understand how science worked had to include God in the equation or it would be "like trying to explain the solar system without including the sun". He felt that if we could understand the mind of God, who he is, why he created, then the rest - the how - would be obvious. At the same time, he said that to simple say "God made everything" but not seek to know the how was to waste the minds God had given us. We were to learn, develop and invent.

Answer 7

Einstein was a "deist". That is, he saw the complex design and mathematical precision that pointed to a supernatural and far superior intelligence whom he acknowledged as the Creator, but he didn't believe in a personal God who cared about and communicated with people on an individual basis. To a deist God is like an impersonal force that set the universe in motion and now has left it running all on it's own.

Answer 8

Yes, Einstein believed that the laws of physics were attributable to God. That is why he worked so hard to find order in the universe; he knew that God had hidden order in there somewhere.

Answer 9

http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm

here is a shorter and easier to read collection:

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 Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, published by Princeton University Press.

"If this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?" [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 L. Finkelstein. Quoted in: 2000 Years of Disbelief. by James Haught]

"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]


EDIT;
As for the Professor and Student story presented above, it is total bullshit. It is totally made up and is farcically naive. It does not even demonstrate good logic. It has our good old Albert arguing in a course he never took in a subject he never studied, lkocation and dates are not given, the professor and institute are not named, but the author is able to read the minds of the main characters and the others students. Total bullshit..

Answer 10

"I believe in a Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of human beings." Telegram to a Jewish newspaper, 1929; [pg.147, Calaprice]. (Spinoza believed the more one studies and understands the universe the better one understands God)