Here are his own words, in reply to all the talk going around about him believing 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
"The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive" - Albert Einstein
2007-08-01 18:40:11 · 17 answers · asked by sprocket9727 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Source:
I got these quotes out of The God Delusion, by Dawkins. He got them from Max Jammer's book Einstein and Religion.
The long one came from a paper Einstein wrote.
2007-08-01 18:46:42 · update #1
It's just plain intellectual dishonesty and laziness. They think (just like with 'Intelligent Design') that any acknowledgment of a higher power is evidence of THEIR God. Here's another quote:
"Religion tried to save itself by the simple expedient of insisting that evolution was not mechanistic but creative, by discovering God in the evolutionary process. Insofar as this means that there is room for freedom and purpose in the evolutionary process, no quarrel is possible with the defenders of the faith. But there is, after all, little freedom or purpose in the evolutionary process -- in short, little morality; so that if we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God...To identify God with automatic processes is to destroy the God of conscience; the God of the real is never the God of the ideal. One of the vainest delusions to which religionists give themselves is to suppose that religion is inevitably a support of morality."
-Reinhold Niebuhr, Our Secularized Civilization
2007-08-01 19:50:18 · answer #1 · answered by dreamed1 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. From two letters. 1927: I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science. 1954: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.
2016-04-01 10:29:25 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think I read that Einstein later converted. You would have to read all of Einstein's works, everything he ever wrote, to be able to say whether or not he believed in God.
Obviously, the author of The God Delusion would not include quotes showing that Einstein was a believer.
2007-08-02 01:09:17 · answer #3 · answered by Cinnibuns 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Your right, Einstein did not believe in a personal God at the same time he was not an Atheist either.
He more or less believed in the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza.
In that God was nature and that nature had a predictable order to it.
This is diametrically apposed to the Atheistic concept that the formation of the Universe and life itself was random and chaotic.
Einstein saw order where Atheists see chance.
2007-08-01 18:57:11 · answer #4 · answered by Gamla Joe 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
the problem is that Einstein is has also been quoted making comments that were religious in nature. Einstein once said, "God doesn't roll dice." Presonally, based on many of the quotes I have read from Einstein, I think Einstein was probably an agnostic. Einstein never really specifically announced whether or not he believed in God.
2007-08-01 18:56:11 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
It all depends how you define "God" and according to which religion.
Albert Einstein was a pantheist and believed in "Cosmic Intelligence" that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe. He was partial to Theravada Buddhism as a cosmic religion of the future.
Stephen Hawking is also a pantheist
Peace be with you.
2007-08-01 18:45:13 · answer #6 · answered by Arf Bee 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is a twisted argument from authority. Hey, look, this really smart guy believed it, you should, toio.
In truth he didn't believe it. So they should just ignore it. To disbalive in god becuase The big E did would also be an logical fallacy.
Since they don't understand that this is a logical fallacy they resort to lies as is their wont.
2007-08-01 18:45:42 · answer #7 · answered by Zarathustra 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The age-old Fundamentalist trick of deliberate misquoting seems to work quite well.
In Fundamentalist circles, anyway.
2007-08-01 18:43:34 · answer #8 · answered by Nowhere Man 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Perfect timing. They are looking for a notable scientist to help support their religious beliefs obviously.
2007-08-01 18:45:04 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
He saw God in the substructure of the universe, but never anthropomorphized.
2007-08-01 18:43:31 · answer #10 · answered by novangelis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋