Scientific Q for all the atheists out there : what do you think of Einstein, Hawking, and other scientists...?

Question

...belief in a deist God as opposed to a theist God? Please, no more flames. I am looking for honest answers, not angry opinions. I am not a religious fundamentalist trying to challenge you, but a seeker teetering between agnosticism and belief in a theist God.

Once again, I am surprised at the anger and venom of some of these responses. I merely asked a question about what people thought, and once again, the flamethrowers come out. If Hawkings does not believe in some sort of God, explain the last sentence in "A Brief History of Time", where he refers to the "mind of God. If Einstein did not believe in some for of God, why would he have said "God does not play dice", instead of simply saying "laws of chance do not govern over laws of physics"? If you are going to argue over what they said or didn't, you better brush up on your reading. I have an extenisive library, and I read before opening my mouth...

Answer 1

Einstein and Hawking are geniuses, I don't disrespect people simply because they believe in god. Great scientists are great because of who they are, not because of their religious beliefs.

Answer 2

Einstein only thought there was a force connecting everything, and he resented becoming a "poster boy" for those who held up this belief and claimed he was deist *or* theist.

Deism doesn't bother me; seems just a small step away from agnosticism. It's still a fair sized admittance of ignorance (and I mean that in a positive way -- admitting you do not know is a brave and wise thing.)

It is statistically shown that the majority of the top scientists are agnostic or atheist. Nonetheless, even if tomorrow every one of them joined the Hillsboro Baptist Church, I would remain atheist.

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Answer 3

Anyone who boasts of their "extensive library" is not really seeking ideas from others but looking to boost their own ego.

I think the men you mentioned are brilliant men who have some right ideas and some wrong ideas. Wasn't it Hawking who recently admitted that he'd been wrong about black holes, much to the delight of the scientific community? Even hyper-intelligent men make mistakes. If they choose to believe that the power and mystery of the universe manifests itself as a deity of sorts, that is their choice. I think it is a more logical choice than believing in the god of the Bible, but beyond that, I really don't care.

For what it's worth, pulling a few quotes out of context does not prove that any of the men you mentioned believe(d) in a deity. All of us atheist regulars on Y!A are quite familiar with Einstein and all of the claims that he believed in a god of some sort.

I personally enjoy his quote, in response to whether he believed in an afterlife, "No. And one life is enough for me."

Answer 4

There are Christian, Atheist, Muslim, and all kinds of scientists. I cannot delve into the minds of each one throughout time and explain to you exactly what they believed and why. And I cannot follow what someone else says simply because I believe them to be intelligent. I believe Freud was intelligent and I don't believe all his theories, particularly the one about penis envy.
We take the information we have, and people do the best the can with it I suppose. And we have to remember, that ALL people regardless of status, intelligence, and talent fear death at some point. Sometimes the very basic emotions of fear and vanity decide what we believe in. Other times society decides for us.
It is for this reason that we all have to choose for ourselves.
That's the best way I can explain it to you.

Answer 5

Honestly?

That their beliefs were a result of the knowledge that science will never be able to answer ALL of the questions people have. They were very wise men, but their beliefs were undoubtedly in part due to social pressure and in part due to their inability to recconcile the religions of their time with the objective evidence they were looking at.

Answer 6

I think any believing something because someone famous/smart/respected once believed it is a hallmark of poor thinking.

A thought has value because of what it is, not of who posed/believed it. Yes, those men are and were smart ,but that doesn't make what they believed true. It's the other way around. Because they were smart, they were able to think critically and analyze a position for themselves.

Note: that in no way means what they believed is true or not true. It just means they were intelligent enough to use their minds, instead of relying on others to tell them what to think.

Answer 7

These are very intelligent people, did the wise men not follow stars in the sky etc? Im not 100%persuaded by their ideas but some scientific ideas are very logical. Saying this ive had some very unexplainable things happen in my life so am just another curious soul!

Answer 8

Yeah so they believe. Good for them. The human mind likes to believe in things to keep the procreationary drive going. (neurotheology).

Deism sounds viable as it doesnt interfere with the natural world as theism does, and does cant be contradicted. Plus i like the fact that there are no dogmas and religions based on deism (unless maybe you count buddhism and hinduism).

However if it cant be contradicted, I see no point in believing in the first place. I might as well be a spiritual atheist. No diff, to me.

Answer 9

What does their belief in a god have to do with anything? They are not leaders of the atheists? Atheists do not depend on them to dictate the existance of a god. Atheists look at the situation and make their own decision based on the evidence at hand.

Answer 10

Argument from authority is worthless.

Who cares what they believed in? Only their contributions to science matter. Honestly, this really amounts to 'because I said so' and is insufficient in science and any rational debate.

Please understand this is not an 'angry opinion' this is the only way to look at something so subjective and unsupported. The creator of a scientific theory isn't credited with any special understanding of it, let alone on any other subject. We understand evolution far better now than Darwin ever did. Einstein was dead wrong when his intuition came up against quantum mechanics.

Hawking? I haven't made up my mind about him. I think he's just mischievous. Besides his 'god' is really just a term for the laws of the universe. He doesn't believe in a supernatural being that can violate physical law.