Why do people care so much about Einstein's take on god?

Question

Sure, he had a few good insights on the universe, but he was far from infallible. He believed in a static universe, something that we know today is incorrect. He was just a human being, after all, smarter than the average human being, but still just a human being. That's why it's so important that we separate personal opinion from empirical evidence, no matter whose opinion it is.

Just for the record, Einstein was a pantheist. But who cares?

Answer 1

I guess that the Christian thought is that great scientist are the atheist's equivalent of a saint or pastor. This means that since we accept their contributions to science we also either must try to emulate their lifestyle or would be willing to accept their belief system.

Answer 2

Einstein, as well as many other intellectuals and scientists of his day (the turn of the 20th century) were influenced by monistic and theosophistic eastern and syncretic philosophies.

I was recently told by the cosmologist John Dobson (inventor of the Dobsonian telescope--a 92 year old man right now) that Einstein got his famous equation e=mc2 from his then wife (who he "stole" a lot of his ingenius stuff from before he dumped her actually). His wife got the idea from speaking with Nicolai Tesla who, in turn, had had a conversation about energy and matter with an Indian Hindu Vedantist monk known as Swami Vivekananda who was travelling around and becoming a celebrity of sorts in America circa 1900-1903 or so. The idea discussed was that energy is matter--a basic idea within philosophical Hinduism. (the c2 part of the equation is irrelevant jargon added to make a mathematical equation, according to Dobson).

Einstein was not a pantheist; some of his work may have been inspired by monistic views that can be found in eastern spiritual philosophies that can be said to be prescientific or "metaphysical" such as advaita Vedanta and also Kashmir Shaivism which talk about an unchanging apriori ground from which phenomena arise but without the idea of something coming from nothing.

Answer 3

i does not declare to be extra clever than Albert Einstein. i visit additionally not declare, like maximum of do, to be attentive to what Einstein believed. i will't examine his suggestions or ask him approximately his ideals individually, so i will in straightforward terms draw conclusions from the historic documents we've with regards to Einstein. The learn I incredibly have performed shows that Einstein grew to become right into a deist, not a theist. this means that Einstein believed in a writer of the universe, yet did not have faith in a private, theistic god. for this reason, collectively as his opinion differs from atheists, it additionally differs from Christians. So do Christians think of they're smarter than Einstein? On an ingredient not, maximum atheists i be attentive to scoff at a theistic point of view. We view a deistic viewpoints as a actual looking, albeit unsubstantiated point of view. We admit deistic viewpoints are possible, yet they lack data. it incredibly is theistic viewpoints, which includes Christianity, that are so ridiculous that we experience risk-free in claiming psychological superiority!

Answer 4

There is a sort of logical error based on the appeal to authority. In television commercials and the like it is very obvious: A famous baseball player tells us which car to buy, for example. How much time has this baseball player spent studying the engineering and design of cars? It hardly matters, because he's famous and must, therefore, know.

Einstein, as a theologian, was a wonderful physicist.

Answer 5

I mostly just get annoyed when Christians try to claim he was a Christian, simply because of a few things he said about God.

They must not even realize he was raised Jewish.

But I agree with you. It really doesn't matter what Einstein believed. What matters, is why he believed whatever it is he believed.

Answer 6

he's one of the smartest dude on earth .

sure his IQ is not max , sure he is not the smartest , but he is generally way smarter than way lots of guy .
his theory has been tested and most as i know has been proven to be true after he died.

of course there are some where there are skeptics thinking it's not true , but it has not been proven to be false either.

being so smart , he could see things in ways normal people may not have been.

and i think he believe the universe is expanding 24 - 7 , where did you get the info he believe it to be static.

Answer 7

first off i have to quote him, " My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.", which makes sense to me. secondly, i think you misunderstood his idea of the static universe, einstein said the universe is never expanding nor contracting do to instability, he did say that movement of the galaxies is possible and that the universe itself may be remade onto itself, that the contraction and expansion would have to equal one another, but most have stability, which again makes sense to me.

Answer 8

For me, it wouldn't be an issue if the Christians weren't always trying to claim him as one of their own. They twist his quotes try to make an argument that puts him on "their" side, in an attempt to make nonbelievers look bad ... because, you know, if one of the smartest guys to ever walk the planet believed in God, then how silly are you to not agree with him?

That's why I take offense to it. They misrepresent him to try to undermine their opponents.

Einstein was an agnostic who rejected the notion of a personal god. The man deserves to have his record kept straight.

Answer 9

Einstein was just another one of us...with a little more insight.
Is there a reason why people should not care?

Answer 10

Too much time on their hands, bored mostly, plus Einstein was an interesting if somewhat misguided genius.