If Einstien believed in God, why would you not?

Question

He is obviously exponentially smarter than all of us and he knows about science better than all of us as well. Are you going to say you know more about evolution than he did? Or about the cosmos? Or about the big bang? If he concluded with his vast knowledge that God exists, and he knows far more than us about science, isn't it only logical to agree?
This question isn't directed toward anyone, I just think its a decent argument. What do you think?

To answer your question Man of Utopia, it is well known. Here is one of his famous quotes: "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

If Einstein didn't believe in God, explain the "God doesn't play with dice" quote. It seems pretty direct.

Answer 1

Einstein did not believe in the God of the Bible.

In fact, he did not believe in any kind of a personal, interfering God, saying, "neither the rule of human nor Divine Will exists as an independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted...by science, for [it] can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot."

More quotes from Einstein...
"I came — though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents — to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve."
http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/freethink.html

I do not think that it is necessarily the case that science and religion are natural opposites. In fact, I think that there is a very close connection between the two. Further, I think that science without religion is lame and, conversely, that religion without science is blind. Both are important and should work hand-in-hand.
Peter A. Bucky, et. al., The Private Albert Einstein (Kansas City, 1992), p. 85.

A Jew who sheds his faith along the way, or who even picks up a different one, is still a Jew.
Peter A. Bucky, et. al., The Private Albert Einstein (Kansas City, 1992), p. 87.

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, 1954, from "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press

You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religion of the naive man.
For the latter God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one stands to some extent in a personal relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe.
But the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.
http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/sciencereligious.html

When asked by telegram by New York's Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein in 1929 if he believed in God, Einstein replied, "I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."

Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza#Overview_of_his_philosophy for further explanation of what "Spinoza's God" means, but Einstein's sentence pretty much sums it up.

So, when Einstein said that God does not play dice, he was referring to his own belief that God works through His own natural laws (ie: the laws of physics and nature), not through miracles. Likewise, Einstein fully realized that God would never be able to be proven or disproven through science, so to argue about God's existence is futile.

Unlike Einstein, I do believe in a personal God. Also unlike Einstein, I believe in a Creator God.

There are plenty of people who are just as smart, influential, and important in science that do not believe in any kind of God. Am I to believe them just because they are smart? Of course not. That would be an Argument by Authority. Arguments should be accepted or refuted based on their evidence and logic, not because of the authority, or lack of it, of the person making the argument.

My belief in God is based on faith, and nothing more. Apparently that is how God wants it to be, or He would give us scientific evidence for which to believe in Him. Einstein recognized that no such evidence, either way, exists.

Good luck and God bless,
El Chistoso

Answer 2

I don't think Einstein actually believe in God but used the idea of God as a metaphor to explain nature. Plus even if he did that doesn't mean I have to believe what he did.
P.S. I don't think Einstein knew that much about evolution, because he wasn't a biologists

Answer 3

Sorry, but this argument has all kinds of holes in it. Einstein is not the only person who is/was exponentially smarter than most of us, and not all of them are theists.

What someone chooses to believe is a personal matter. Some of the most ignorant people I know believe in god, too. Should I follow their lead?

Answer 4

Einstein didn't necessarily know more than me about science topics outside of physics.

Also, I'm pretty sure Einstein's conception of God reduces to the idea that God himself is the universe and we are here to understand how it works though we can only understand a small amount of it.

That's different from the Christian conception of God.

I think Einstein's belief in God is very close to agnosticism, which is what I am (agnostic).

Answer 5

What makes you think he believed in god?

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, 1954, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press]

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; 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. [Albert Einstein, Religion and Science, New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930]

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. [Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, and published by Princeton University Press.]

Answer 6

But you also have to take into consideration the fact that civilizations were doing just fine way before Christianity ever came into the picture, but you guy's still say you are the best thing that ever happened.
Take for instance the roman civilization it wasn't until Christians entered the picture that they started to decline, and get offer ran by barbarians. But people have a tendency to forget the bad things. I even heard one bible thumpper say Hurricane Katrina was created to make all to "bad people" down there pay for their acts.
So my question to you is way is it when bad things happen do catholics and christians like to blame thins and say things like "it's because of the gays and lesbians or the fact we are being punished"? Face it your "GOD" has been around only 2000 years and civilization has been around for about 12,000 years do the dam math.
And by the way Mr. Einstien was into physics not evolution, or did you forget he helped on the A-Bomb, and things like that. No doubt he was a lot smarter then some people, but not everyone, and I'm not going to even compare myself to him. The statement you are trying to prove is like saying Steven Hawkings can prove Atlantis was real. They don't coencide.

Answer 7

His was a spiritual atheism. He believed there is an information rich (ie, intelligent) source to the universe, which is obvious, but not that this in any relevant way matched the idea of a personality behind all events.

By the way, he was also a vegetarian - how about you? Your argument is not a good one, because even if it were true, it would be a "biased sample".

Answer 8

Faith and belief and have nothing to do with intelligence. What Einstein believed does not influence what I believe. Of course Einstein is far more intelligent, at least scientifically, then I can ever hope to be. That doesn't give validity to his faith system.

P.S. Most people believe what their parents raised them to believe. You can call it a choice, but in nearly every case it looks a lot more like indoctrination at a young age to me.

Answer 9

Of course I trust your assessment of Einstein's religion. I mean, it's not like you didn't even get the name right.

Obviously you have a small mind if you just look for the most impressive person you can think of, and then just agree with him.

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Edit: Here's a theist's take on Einstein and God. Please note, this is not an atheist speaking.

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/einstein.html

Answer 10

Anyone that places their beliefs on the opinion of one man is a fool. You might as well become a scientologist or a muslim since both those beliefs were started by only one man. It's illogical and not a decent argument. Faith is about God, not men.

May God Bless you.