Was Einstein an atheist?

Question

If not "atheist," what term best applies?

Is there another word for "Spinozian"?

Answer 1

When asked whether or not he believed in God, Einstein replied, "I believe in Spinoza's God." Spinoza was a 17th century Jewish philosopher who was kicked out of his synagogue for being a heretic in denying that God played any role in day to day life. Einstein tended to see the Universe itself as God, and denied in writing any belief in a personal God or one who broke the laws of the universe in order to serve or punish mankind.

Interestingly, there was the following sentence in the discussion of Spinoza in the Wikipedia article: "In 1785, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi published a condemnation of Spinoza's pantheism, after Lessing was thought to have confessed on his deathbed to being a 'Spinozist', which was the equivalent in his time of being called an atheist." Apparently the term "Spinozist" has been around for a while, and it was seen as an equivalent to atheism for at least a period.

Oddly, Christians now cling strongly to the notion that Einstein believed in God, when his own stated beliefs would have been considered atheistic in many eras. They really probably need to let Einstein go. He has much more in common with the atheists & agnostics than with anything approaching Christianity.

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Answer 2

While Einstein publicly denied belief in a personal God and stated he didn't believe in any of the religions (he was a Jew by culture and birth only). Many speculate he was an atheistic pantheist. There is a quote circulating around the internet having him say he doesn't identify with the labels atheist or pantheist but the quote is suspect and no actual source can be found for it that I am aware of, unlike the others below. But he did say he agreed with Spinoza whose God was the natural forces in Nature and the universe. He really seemed to not want to be labeled. Some say Einstein's God was just the sum of the physical laws of the universe.

Didn't believe in a personal traditional 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 behaviour 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

Believed in Spinoza's idea:

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." (Albert Einstein) Following his wife's advice in responding to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the International Synagogue in New York, who had sent Einstein a cablegram bluntly demanding Do you believe in God? Quoted from and citation notes derived from Victor J. Stenger, Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001), chapter 3.

Answer 3

Einstein never believed in a personal god, he referred to "god" many times but he was speaking more of a natural god. Like in this often misrepresented quote "God does not play dice with the universe".
He is recorded as saying that a "deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God". However, he certainly was not referring to anything like the God of the Bible, who is Creator, Lawgiver, Judge and Savior.

Albert Einstein's reaction to the consequences of his own general theory of relativity appear to acknowledge the threat of an encounter with God. Through the equations of general relativity, we can trace the origin of the universe backward in time to some sort of a beginning. However, before publishing his cosmological inferences, Einstein introduced a cosmological constant, a "fudge factor," to yield a static model for the universe. Einstein later considered this to be the greatest blunder of his scientific career.

Einstein ultimately gave grudging acceptance to what he called "the necessity for a beginning" and eventually to "the presence of a superior reasoning power." But he never did accept the reality of a personal God.

Answer 4

I think the actual term is deist but he was certainly not a believer in a personal God in the sense of a God being a person.
He once described God as being revealed in the order of physical laws. He often referred to God but only as a sort of energy.

Answer 5

Albert Einstein was most definitely Deist. So no he was not religious.

He believed very strongly in science, but as well as a spirituality in nature.

Very common to the thoughts of Deism.

Answer 6

Yes. Einstein did NOT believe in any god or gods..

There will be dishonest and/or ill informed christian fruitcakes claiming him as one of their own, but it's not true..
He was neither a believer in the jewish god, nor any other, as he was far too informed to believe in such nonsense..
This is very well documented, however like all straws that the christian/creationists set grasp at, mountains of denial and ignorance will prevail..

Answer 7

Nope, a pantheist (you're right, of the Spinoza variety).

I suppose "Spinozian" works well. You made a new word!

Answer 8

it's Spinozist. But he was more of a pantheist, while Spinoza was probably a panentheist.
And as to Spinozism: it's not really a new word. In fact in the eighteenth century the word Spinozism was used a lot, almost always derogatory.

Answer 9

He was probably a Deist or a pantheist. He was a strong believer in Spinoza otherwise a "natural god". He was Jewish by ethnic, Zionist by ideology.

Answer 10

Pantheist.