Just curious: Any Atheists might be willing to believe in Einstein's God?

Question

"I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals or would 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. My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality." Albert Einstein, 1927

Just wondering whether you reject ANY idea of "God" or whether you're specifically against the Judaic - Christian - Islamic conception of God.

And for those interested:
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/einstein/index.shtml

I see that a few of you cannot get past the letters G- O and D in that order to see what might be underneath the concept. Einstein uses the word God quite often and always metaphorically for some larger reality undergirding the structure of reality. It's obvious he doesn't condone a personal god. The question is do you think he's possibly right?

Answer 1

Yes. But...
As I understand the set of Einstein's comments I would not use the term "god" to encapsulate them.

His "infinitely superior spirit" was not personal, or interested in humanity, or active with any deliberate intent.

"I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic.
What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with humility. This is a genune religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism." Albert Einstein.

Put parameters on your usage of "god", and I might be able to answer your second question.
(while considering Christianity, the issue of all the other major faiths and their understanding of deity did come up, but I remain atheistic with respect to them as well)

With Buddhism and Pantheism, the degree of identifying God with Universe does make both language and concepts difficult. As in trying to write that last sentence concisely and accurately!

Answer 2

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]

"The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature." Einstein

Its seems to me that Einstein uses "God" as a metaphor for the Mathematical laws of physics. He certainly does not use it as most people do when they refer to a god.

Answer 3

My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that "reveals" itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding

It has not been revealed to me and if it will i will try to understand it till a point where I understand it or till a point where I understand that it has been really revealed to me and I can not understand but merely submit (but will try to understand)

As for quoting someone like Einstein, You know that on the day of judgment every body has to lift his own burden, to answer his own judgments not any one Else's so My believe or not believe in God is my own problem not Einsteins not Muhammad's or Jesus's for that matter so i would like to do what make me feel right and If after all my tries I could not understand him and he does not forgive me for trying to understand than he is the most cruel being I have ever known and with this sort of being (if he is this sort of) you never know........................, so will still try to understand at all cost

Answer 4

Einstein's idea of a cosmic God (which more closely resembles the Eastern concepts of Oneness) would be a more accurate depiction of reality as it was seen in the realm where science and spirituality merge. Why not? Quantum physics has revealed that materialism is not the absolute and man's mind is more at one with the external world than we have previously believed. He doesn't believe in an anthropomorphic entity with human mood swings and agendas. It resembles more a concept of consciousness that incompasses all humanity in it's relationship with the perceptually external, material world. I believe it also reveals that human conciousness can not acquire enlightenment or salvation vicariously through the self-revelations or deeds of another individual. But such a spiritual placebo may have its benefits as well as its drawbacks.

Answer 5

I think using the term god for the views of pantheists may not be entirely appropriate . The term god almost universally implies a sentient being and in some manner having interactions with humans. The "god" of pantheism seems to be the Universe and it's laws itself, not interest or acknowledgement that humans even exist.

I don't think that I would ever change my views but if I did I could see myself as a pantheist, because the more I study the Universe and whats in it the more I am in awe of it all. I don't see god or even anything I consider as intelligently designed, but sometimes the workings of it all is astonishing.

Outside of pantheism I do reject the notion of all gods, nor even if one were proved could I see myself worshipping. I have yet to find a deity whom I don't consider as evil as good or one I can relate to.

Answer 6

No I don't have a problem with deism. But it is more a matter of semantics. For all practical purposes it is no different in practice than atheism.

Einstein, later in life clarified his beliefs. He was a atheist.



I received your letter of June 10th. I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist. -

Albert Einstein, letter to Guy H. Raner Jr, July 2, 1945, responding to a rumor that a Jesuit priest had caused Einstein to convert from atheism; quoted by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic, Vol. 5, No. 2

Answer 7

Atheists dont worship Einstein, Darwin or Al Gore.
We do not worship.
Just because he had religious beliefs, doesn't mean we have to.

And no, we dont belive in Middle Eastern gods, and sure if you want to bend the meaning of god away from the personification it traditionally entitles, then if you twist the meaning around enough to describe weather stuff effects other stuff then you could say penguins believe in god.

Answer 8

That's a very interesting quote that you have dug up; however, as an Atheist, I believe that in a way, Einstein's "infinitely superior spirit" is not an ethereal being, but the moral compass of human beings themselves. I do not believe in any superior "being", but rather in science and coincidence and the generosity of mankind (or lack thereof).

Answer 9

i think of you ought to learn your subject matter a dash extra. there are lots of atheistic expenditures owing to the two certainly one of them. in fact, Hawkings first spouse improve right into a Christian and claimed that her ideals often contrasted sharply along with his atheistic perspectives. to boot, if Hawking's theories are the main suitable option, in his very own words there may well be no choose for a god: "What I even have carried out is to coach that that's plausible for a fashion the universe began to be desperate by ability of the regulations of technological understanding. if so, it would not be mandatory to allure to God to % how the universe began. this would not prepare that there is not any God, in uncomplicated terms that God isn't mandatory." i do no longer think of Hawkings is a die-complicated atheist, yet he's clearly no longer an adamant believer, the two. i think of he properly keeps to be ambiguous. As for Einstein, his atheism regarded extra concrete. From a correspondence between Ensign guy H. Raner and Albert Einstein in 1945 and 1949, Einstein responds to the accusation that he improve into converted by ability of a Jesuit priest: "I even have by no ability talked to a Jesuit prest in my existence. i'm astonished by ability of the audacity to tell such lies approximately me. From the attitude of a Jesuit priest i'm, of direction, and have continuously been an atheist." Or: "It improve into, of direction, a lie what you learn my non secular convictions, a lie that's being systematically repeated. i don't have self belief in a private God and that i've got by no ability denied this yet have expressed it for sure. If some thing is in me that would properly be spoke of as non secular then it is the unbounded admiration for the form of the international so a ways as our technological understanding can exhibit it." He additionally pronounced, in a letter: "The be conscious god is for me no longer something extra suitable than the expression and made of human weaknesses, the Bible a decision of honourable, yet nevertheless primitive legends that are even with the undeniable fact that especially infantile. No interpretation notwithstanding how diffused can (for me) substitute this." it is uncomplicated to take issues out of context, yet Einstein seems especially darned sparkling on his place. There are different different expenditures and sources to assist this, yet you're able to do your person learn, in case you %.

Answer 10

Fundamentally I agree with what Einstein said but I think calling nature God obscures matters.