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Perhaps the most famous scientist of all time, Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in Ulm, Germany and died in 1955 in his adopted country, the United States. He did major research on the photoelectric effect, for which he received the Nobel Prize in physics, 1921, and was the author of the special and general theories of relativity.
Given Einstein's enormous celebrity as a scientist, and the fact that he admitted to a certain "religiosity", some religious believers try to present him as an apologist for religious belief. But the allegation is at best a misconception, and often a lie, because Einstein's religiosity had nothing to do with that of mainstream religions. In fact, he rejected all belief in the supernatural and he also rejected any mythological basis for moral precepts.
"The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion.
Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seems to me to be empty and devoid of meaning."1921
"From the standpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.... It is always misleading to use anthropomorphical concepts in dealing with things outside the human sphere - childish analogies."
From a letter dated July 2nd, 1945
"I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being."
From a letter dated September 28th, 1949
"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."
"The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action."
1950
"I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."
1953
"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."
From a letter to an atheist who had asked about Einstein's alleged religious beliefs, 1954
"I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a 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 a feeling of "humility." This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism"1954-1955
And so, just what was Einstein's philosophical stance as regards the "god" question?
It is clear from his statements that he can honestly be considered an agnostic,
or an atheist, or possibly a pantheist in the tradition of Spinoza,
but that he was most certainly not a theist. In particular, Einstein rejected theism as a basis
for morality. Furthermore, he was aware than some religious apologists were deliberately misrepresenting his views.
In other words, Einstein was evidently an atheist but was apparently of the opinion that it was ungracious to say so in a
forthright manner. With all due respect to the great scientist, some of us choose to disagree with him on this last point.
References
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