Einstein said, "God does not play dice". What did he mean?

Question

Did he mean that randomness is not a factor in nature?

Answer 1

He meant that God does not have to throw dice to make a decision or do to anything.
He meant that God is in absolute control of His plan.
He means that things are not a crap shoot for God.

grace2u

Answer 2

Einstein, when confronted with the new emerging science of quantum physics, did not like the conclusion that physicists were coming to. It turns out that on the subatomic, quantum level, one can't predict where an electron, say, might be. Quantum physicis states that you can not know the velocity of a subatomic particle and know where it is at the same time. You can know one or the other, but not both. This is what' s known as quantum indeterminacy. But quantum physicis is very accurate when determining probabilies. For example, that electron has a 10% chance of being here, and maybe a 90% chance of being there. But each experiment, when repeated, will not give the same results, but it will conform to the probabilities set forth by quantum theory. Einstein did not like the idea that at the quantum level, things are random, and by logical extension, the microscopic workings of the universe are random. As Stephen Hawking said in answer to Einstein's "God does not play dice with the universe," in this regard, Einstein was mistaken.

Answer 3

Physics genius Steve Hawking answers this question most eloquently at the Roll & Shuffle under Gambling Scientists: http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?t=1349:

Einstein was very unhappy about this apparent randomness in nature. His views were summed up in his famous phrase, 'God does not play dice'. He seemed to have felt that the uncertainty was only provisional: but that there was an underlying reality, in which particles would have well defined positions and speeds, and would evolve according to deterministic laws, in the spirit of Laplace. This reality might be known to God, but the quantum nature of light would prevent us seeing it, except through a glass darkly.

Einstein's view was what would now be called, a hidden variable theory. Hidden variable theories might seem to be the most obvious way to incorporate the Uncertainty Principle into physics. They form the basis of the mental picture of the universe, held by many scientists, and almost all philosophers of science. But these hidden variable theories are wrong. The British physicist, John Bell, who died recently, devised an experimental test that would distinguish hidden variable theories. When the experiment was carried out carefully, the results were inconsistent with hidden variables. Thus it seems that even God is bound by the Uncertainty Principle, and can not know both the position, and the speed, of a particle. So God does play dice with the universe. All the evidence points to him being an inveterate gambler, who throws the dice on every possible occasion.

From the public lecture, Does God Play Dice? by Prof. Stephen Hawking.

Scroll down about halfway, then keep going to get Niels Bohr's pithy retort to Einstein. Very crisp.

Answer 4

Einstein was not an atheist, and he was not a christian either.

His idea of god is different from the christian god. He also said,

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism."

Go figure.

Answer 5

Ok you asked for it. This will probably ruin your whole day. As I understand it. He was not very satisfied with some of the weird stuff than resulted from his quantum theory. Chiefly that since electronic orbitals had to adjust up or down by precisely the energy of one photon. This mean that intermediate steps between one orbit to the next did not exist. Thats strange enough but it also resulted in the idea that the exact locations of electrons orbiting atoms could not be known but could only be expressed as a probability. Which prompted his statement was a dissatisfaction with quantum mechanics and his conclusion that there must be a better explaination. He spent the rest of his life looking for one but never found it.

Answer 6

He refused to accept the FACT that quantum physics is random and chaotic...this is why he failed in his "theory of everything".
-Yes, he thought that randomness is never a factor, and quantum physics has proved this statement wrong.
Borg responded to Einstein in their famous philosophical debate by saying, "Who are you to tell God what to do with his dice?"

Answer 7

I didn't know he said that. As Einstein was Atheists he probably was making some kind of joke. You know his jokes were sort of lame anyway.
Then maybe it was because quantum physics proved his unification theory wrong and he died a bitter old man because of it.

Answer 8

Playing dice is about taking chances. Nothing is by chance with GOD. HE created us for a purpose and HE "knows the plans" that HE has for you.

Answer 9

God has a very concrete, established plan for the world. He did not design things randomly. Ironically, the rational mind seems to be rarely used. And in science, structures of neutrons at this time, seem incredibly random.

Answer 10

He did not believe in a random universe. Einstein was not a Christian.