Was Einstein an atheist, or are rumors of his beliefs greatly exagerated?

Question

Einstein wrote an essay titled Science and Religion in which one of the passages rejected God as a personal God. Atheists used this essay as a way to claim Einstein as a member, but his response was as follows.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-79786939.html
"The result of this essay was that Einstein was repeatedly misinterpreted as an atheist, including being claimed by the atheists as one of their own. His reaction was beautifully captured in another of his statements: "They [the atheists] are creatures who, in their grudge against the traditional 'opium of the people,' cannot hear the music of the spheres."
It seems that Einstein found it more rational to believe in a higher being than to not believe in anything. How do you view his opinion?

"Einstein used to speak so often about God that I tend to believe he has been a disguised theologian," Frederick Duerrenmatt said.

Spinoza saw as a logical consequence an identification of God with Nature. Einstein, however, felt that, quoting Jammer: "He who knows Nature knows God, not because Nature is God, but because the pursuit of science in studying Nature leads to religion...the manifestation of the divine in the universe is only partially comprehensible to the human intellect."

I am not presuming to 'nail down' so to speak his beliefs but I am saying I don't see evidence of athiesm.

Answer 1

einstein was a deist, possibly a theist.

But he wasn't an atheist and he didn't believe in a personal god either

i seem to recall him saying something like "the more I learn about physics, the more I believe that there is a creator behind it"

Answer 2

The question of scientific determinism gave rise to questions about Einstein's position on theological determinism, and even whether or not he believed in God. In 1929, Einstein told Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein "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."

Brian, Dennis (1996), Einstein: A Life, New York: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-11459-6

Einstein defined his religious views in a letter he wrote in response to those who claimed that he worshipped a Judeo-Christian 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."

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html

Answer 3

I think the best answer is look at Einstein as a believer in Spinoza's God. Both the Synagogue and the Church condemned him because his writings were clearly against Jewish and Christian teachings. Spinoza's God isn't a personal god and is really so tied to nature that it is almost a deistic god, but not quite that either. I think the laws of nature were his God.

Answer 4

There were plenty more Einstein quotes, which add up to his being an Atheist.

http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Albert_Einstein

People are often forced all their life to maintain the semblance of being religious, for political reasons. OR more likely because religious people are like evil vampires who will pounce on anyone who is not their own kind. No one is allowed to freely change his mind, because that would give the other religious people the notion that religion IS, in fact, all in the mind and that's a very unsettling thought for people who think religion means something firmer.

Answer 5

He regularly refered to belief in Spinoza's God.

However, Spinoza's God is in fact, an atheistic philosophy.

Soooo... I'll take the man at his word. He was an atheist because he held to an atheistic philosophy.

------

That he claimed Spinoza is evidence. Certainly not proof, I think Kallan is probably pretty close to it. Somewhere halfway between a pantheist and an atheist.

Einstein once said, "I am a deeply religious non-believer. This is a somewhat new kind of religion." It's a religious view I share with him, as best I understand his meaning.

Answer 6

People have long tried to tie down Einsteins beliefs. Truth of the matter is, they were as complicated as the man himself. Both sides (if that's the best way of putting it) can quote Einstein to put across their arguments. Maybe he was being deliberately obtuse to provoke arguments or maybe he felt it was nobodies business. Either way, he knew his beliefs, why do we presume to know him better?

Answer 7

If anything, Einstein was a pantheist with atheistic leanings.

Answer 8

I spy a drinking question...