2007-01-16 06:58:54 · 29 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I agree completely.
I think it's worth adding some more Einstein quotes as there seem to be some people here who don't know much about his religious viewpoints.
"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"
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind"
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically"
"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"
"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."
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge"
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated 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."
And my personal favourite:
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
2007-01-16 09:04:06 · answer #1 · answered by The Truth 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
From my understanding, he didn't know what he was. He wasn't an atheist or a pantheist, because he said he wasn't. He honestly couldn't comprehend a beginning to a God (from Jewish beliefs, God has no beginning, so he couldn't believe in that God), but he couldn't also comprehend the order he saw in the universe without a God being present. But he definitely was not a Christian. I think, given the Holocaust, he would have been offended at the idea. I think the Snopes answer though probably has something to do with it. Just like people believe that blinking your headlights will get you killed, people tend to get emails saying Einstein did this or was that and take it as gospel. :P "In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views." "I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. 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 arrangements 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." Add: Just to say it, if Einstein said "I'm not a pantheist" which is what he said, even if what he also said seems to lean in that direction, you can't say "he was a pantheist." He said he wasn't, and... that's just how it is.
2016-05-25 01:59:16 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The God who rewards good and punishes evil is the God Einstein grew up with as he is Jewish. Christians don't exactly believe that. We believe that we all have sinned and deserve death.
However, God provided an escape from this dire set of circumstances through Jesus. Anyway I feel like the unbelievers who read here aren't really seeking, and it feels like casting pearls before swine (if you'll excuse the expression) to go on. I just wanted to say that Christian theology doesn't believe in the god Einstein sees in theology either.
2007-01-16 07:11:12 · answer #3 · answered by rcpeabody1 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I agree with Albert. But please note his (always) intelligent distinctions. He did NOT say he did not believe in God-- In fact, other quotes show that he did. Just not the ridiculous descriptions and beliefs about God.
Einstein believed in cause and effect--- "karma" is cause and effect. "As ye sow so shall ye reap"
God IS---
A theology that wants to keep people in line invented all the rest.
Not that good and evil do not exist--- and those who choose evil go away from relationship with God. But basically, that is the punishment-- God is all good and all loving; the opposite is no loving and no good.
2007-01-16 07:12:03 · answer #4 · answered by Rani 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Agree
2007-01-16 08:17:55 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree that I do not believe in the Abrahamic God of theology, who rewards good and punishes evil.
)O(
2007-01-16 07:07:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Disagree. Our sense of justice demands of God that he rewards good and punishes evil. And that is what he's like.
The problem is we're all evil. Thankfully Christ was good, and died in our place, rising again so that we might have eternal life.
2007-01-17 01:37:34 · answer #7 · answered by trebor88 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely agree. And Einstein was around for World War II, in which a lot of good was crushed and a lot of evil went unpunished. Some evil (Hiroshima) was even perpetuated with one of his discoveries, against his wishes. So I don't blame him one bit for thinking that.
2007-01-16 07:03:53 · answer #8 · answered by GreenEyedLilo 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I Agree. You don't have to believe in the Abrahamic God to believe in something divine. The only god(des) I care to contemplate is one that loves and teaches, not one that rewards and punishes.
2007-01-16 07:04:49 · answer #9 · answered by dead_elves 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Agree, except it isn't *the* God of theology -- it's *a* God of theology, or the God of *a* theology.
There are actually theologies that take divine mercy seriously.
2007-01-16 07:04:06 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋