Whats your opinion on Albert Einstein's thoughts on religion?

Question

Albert Einstein was the most intelligent person of our time.

"Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment - an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections. "

discuss

I agree to a certain point Leviathon, but if we consider einstein to be the greatest mind of our time than he is actually perhaps the only authority worth considering.

He appears to have puit allot of time and consideration into understanding the universe and religion

Answer 1

It's a good quote. Most people that can critically think or think objectively realize that religion is contradictory and unsupported by any real evidence.

Remember though, we do not base our thoughts on specific people or their beliefs, but on the results of their work when it is proven to be factual.

Edit: The point is that believers tend to shape their thoughts from great men (women) and will accept their beliefs becuase they are "holy" or lead a good life. In science, the character or beliefs of a person don't matter and do not effect the facts and data presented.

Answer 2

You know I think talking about Einstein's views is tedious. Why can't religious people get this through their thick skulls - scientifically literate people are not amenable to argument from authority. Do you understand?

Was Einstein the smartest? How come he said 'God does not play dice' - no doubt you realise he was talking about probability in quantum mechanics - but he was WRONG about that. He was mistaken, ok? So who cares what his religious beliefs were?

He was a deist. I think that was naive but who cares. I'd rather he spent time (as he did) on curved spacetime than on the boring arguments about which mythical sky-fairy is running the show.

**The only authority worth considering? This is the same 'argument from authority' talk - if you want to just listen to one voice and have that tell you everything, read the bible - religion is made for that kind of simplistic mentality. Einstein was wrong about things in physics where he was a world class expert so who cares really what he thought about religion? Dawkins has spent more time thinking about religion so why not make him your authority?**

Answer 3

well i'm not saying anything against the religion of islam in particular, or any religion, but i'm an atheist and i don't agree with religions that are homophobic. i mean, why is their religion so great anyway if it states that some people should be put to death or burn in hell or something simply for being different, or not also believing in the same thing?

Answer 4

When Albert Einstein suggested that there must be a supreme universe, then the other scientists began to say that he was crazy. They said, "He has become too old."
I can give you a statement of Albert Einstein in which he says "The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is in the sensation of the mystical. It is a shower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, he who can no longer stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power which is revealed in the comprehensible universe forms my idea of God.''
Once, in a letter to Max Born, Albert Einstein declared that his goal was to capture the Absolute Truth. Unfortunately, Einstein went about it the wrong way. The Absolute Truth cannot be forcibly captured by a minute part of the Absolute, but according to the philosophy of bhakti-yoga, the Absolute can be captured by love. Once one attains this love, direct knowledge of the Absolute becomes readily available. Yet, ironically, the development of this love is incompatible with the desire for knowledge or power. Knowledge is indeed a by-product of the process of bhakti-yoga, but it cannot be the goal of that process, for the key to the process itself lies in a fundamental reassessment of one's innermost goals.

Answer 5

No one can claim Einstein was the most intelligent person of our time. There is no way to know that.

Einstein publicly called the Bible fiction. Is this a revelation? Thousands of highly intelligent people have called the Bible fiction.

Answer 6

Einstein was at most a pantheist or a deist. Those are FAR different from theism.

I think that is fine and really isn't much different from atheism.

Answer 7

as smart as he was doesn't mean he had all the answers. you sound like you are trying to make him the divine authority on what we should believe. intellectual greatness and education only get you so far. if you don't follow your heart and listen to that still small voice you are avoiding the greatest way to find out who you are and why you're here and where you came from. which will help you better understand where you are going.

Answer 8

Of course, I enjoy reading many of his thoughts on religion. His views evolved over time. Ultimately his spirituality was undefinable to himself, he knew what he was not... but was uncertain of, or unwilling to, label himself.

Answer 9

I agree with his thoughts, but I don't see why people use Einstein's religious views to support their own. He wasn't a theologian, he was a physicist.

Answer 10

i think Marx put it quite simply, "Religion is the opiate of the masses"