Why would Albert Einstein?

Question

make the statement that he was forced to the inescapable conclusion: "The universe reveals an intelligence so far superior to that of man it is altogether inbomprehensible." ??

Answer 1

Here's a better one for you...
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. "

Here's another...
"Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. "

He was, of course, talking about people like you.

Einstein was agnostic only in the sense that he allowed for the same chance of the existence of a personal, caring, interfering, loving God as I do of the Easter Bunny. Basically, he was an atheist. The closest he ever came to claiming a belief in God was when he stated that if he had to choose, he would believe in Spinoza's God. But if one looks at all of his quotes, and in context, one can only see that he didn't believe in God at all. At least not like you and I believe in God. Those who pick and choose which quotes of his to write and which not to, and which ones to take out of context (like this one) have an agenda.
What is yours?

Einstein referenced God often. This is true. However, he mentions God allegorically, like I mention Mother Nature. I'm sure that if someone had followed me around with a tape recorder, or a pad and paper, they could pick and choose certain words I've said that would make it look like I believed in an old woman with a flowing white gown who micromanaged the forests. They, like you, would be wrong.

I notice that you don't give the reference for that quote by Einstein. Why is that? I venture that it is either because you wish to hide it so the readers here won't know that Einstein DIDN'T believe in God like we do, or because you don't even know yourself, and never bothered to check it out. Nope. It agrees with what you want to be true, so you take the ball and run with it.

Creationists are lying to you, and are using you as a pawn.

Well, I can't find it anywhere. Maybe you could tell us what the source was. A book? A letter to a collegue? A speech? A paper? Don't list AIG as the reference. They won't provide the TEXT of what came before and after this sentence, so that WE can put it back into the CONTEXT that YOU took it out of.
How about that?

Anyway...
http://www.2think.org/einstein.shtml
I think part of the problem of theists wanting to believe that famous scientists such as Einstein and Hawking believe in their god comes from the common quote: "God does not play dice with the Universe." To those who already wish that Einstein believed in god, Einstein's mere mention of "god" here is all the "assurance" they need. But to truly understand what he meant when he said that, one has to dig further into Einstein's views toward god and religion. Scientists often informally use "god" to mean the laws of nature.

In a (non-religious) discussion w/ another xian, I brought up this quote: "Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper." Einstein: The Life and Times, Ronald W. Clark, Page 422.

The person's immediate reaction was to say, "yeah, but WHO is the piper???" (Sigh) I don't think these kinds of people are really interested in the true meaning of these quotes, only what parts of them they can use to bolster their cause.

Here are some quotes I found relating to Einstein's views on god & religion:

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings." Upon being asked if he believed in God by Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the Institutional Synagogue, New York, April 24, 1921, Einstein: The Life and Times, Ronald W. Clark, Page 502.

"an attempt to find an out where there is no door." Einstein's description of religious thought, Einstein: The Life and Times, Ronald W. Clark, Page 516.

"Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntary and uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore. In our daily lives we only feel that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is connected with our own." ... "The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is." Einstein's speech 'My Credo' to the German League of Human Rights, Berlin, autumn 1932, Einstein: A Life in Science, Michael White and John Gribbin, Page 262.

And here's one that seems to speak from the grave:

"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 in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas (Einstein's secretary) and Banesh Hoffman, and published by Princeton University Press.

Sorry for the rant; Einstein's sort of one of my historical heroes. :)

P.S. - ok, one more - sort of humorous (from the religious standpoint, at least):

"Coughlin [of the Los Angeles tabloid Illustrated Daily News, in hot pursuit of asking Einstein a provocative, headline-inducing question] found the right moment while tailing the car that was speeding the couple [the Einsteins] north on the coast road to Pasadena. It had stopped to let Einstein stroll over to a small headland known as Sunset Cliffs, where he stood gazing at the sea and sky. Seizing the moment, Coughlin leaped from his car, the question on his lips, followed by Spang, his camera at the ready. "Doctor", Coughlin said, "is there a God?" Einstein stared at the water's edge some twenty feet below, then turned to his questioner. Coughlin later wrote: "There were tears in his eyes, and he was sniffing. Spang shot the picture as Einstein was hustled away before he could answer me. "Well," I said, "the way he reacted, he believes in God. Did you ever see such an emotional face?" Spang was standing on the edge of the headland, where the great scientist had stood. He looked down, then called me: "Come over here." I looked down and there, caught against the base of the little cliff, was a shark that must have been dead in the hot sun for several days. "Make anybody cry", Spang said." Einstein: A Life, Denis Brian, Page 206.

Last, I would just like to ask you, isn't it a sin to bear false witness?

If it is, then why do creationists bear false witness against Darwin, Einstein, Gould, Hawkins, Sagan, and others? Making it seem that they believed something that they certainly did not?

Answer 2

They say evil is the absence of goodness (God), as much as cold is the absence of heat, or darkness is the absence of light, but If truly Einstein said that. he made a big mistake because heat and light can physically be measured, but Good and evil are only qualities to describe a certain behavior and cannot be measured. So if evil is the absence of good, also good will be the absence of evil. (qualities). Plus according to Abrahamic religions, God is everything so if there is evil, it's also a part of God's nature. Some will say evil comes by free will and rejecting God. Well why then many people who don't believe in their God are good? "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus

Answer 3

Because when people come up against things they cannot grasp they often see it as the product of intelligence beyond that which they possess.

THis thinking is often known as 'God of the Gaps'

People used to think the sun was dragged across the sky by a chariot.

Answer 4

Einstein was a Deist, meaning that he (tentatively?) believed in a hypothetical creator who no longer interacted with His (Its ?) creation. Such a God is not a source of morality or cultural guidance or favoritism to any cultural group, and doesn't require worship. You won't find much encouragement of religion in Einstein's writings.

Answer 5

Einstein actually said, "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible".

Answer 6

Very stupid question. You might ask what we think he meant by it, but you can't ask 'WHY' he said so.

In regards to what I think he meant, I say that besides for the fact that it's meant to be slightly humorous and needless of an explanation, he just meant that the order and logic in which the universe operates far outweighs the silly and incomprehensible ways humans act.

Answer 7

That's funny, that quote which I haven't seen before seems to contridict this famous one - "I do not believe in a personal god". He wasn't religious. He wrote extensively on the subject, and was widely critized for it.

Answer 8

Because he was spiritual and probably a better speller than you.

Answer 9

He really said "inbomprehensible"? I thought he was a genius :(

Answer 10

He found God.