Totalitarianist

That doesn't change the fact that he was, and had always been, an Atheist.

Methos

By being an atheist but also using the term "god" and the universe, couldn't Einsten have been considered a pantheist or maybe a panentheist?

Eric

Totalitarianist

He used the word "god" figuratively.

himynameisPwn

If everyone who used the term God to explain something was automatically a theist, then by the same logic, when atheists use pink unicorns to argue that faith is stupid, they must really believe in pink unicorns.

Some people just use god to describe the universe or things in layman terms, ie "God does not play dice with the universe" or "The universe isn't random."

himynameisPwn

By the way, got a source for this letter?

Synaesthesia

Ivan
Then, quite frankly, your conception of Deism is identical to atheism.

AdamWho

He was a deist but it is irrelevant, he was hardly an authority in religious or philosophical thought. People seem to invest a lot in Einstein as some super genius but actually the world and physics would be much the same if had never existed.
There are plenty of people on this board who could easily trump old Al on religious subjects.

Hondo

Einstein was most definitely not an xtian.

Einstein was never a Catholic, he merely attended a Catholic primary school, maintaining his Jewish identity throughout the experience.* pages 20-25

If anything he felt a strong attachment to Baruch Spinoza, a man who at one time was a Jew much like Einstein. Spinoza is considered the father of pantheism. "Spinoza denied the existence of a cosmic purpose on the grounds that all events in nature occur according to the immutable laws of cause and effect. The universe is governed by a mechanical or mathematical order not according to purposeful or moral intnetions. *page 43

Einstein has the following to say about the ideas of Spinoza. "Spinoza was the first to apply with strict consistency the idea of all pervasive determinism to human thought, feeling, and action. In my opinion, his point of view has not gained general acceptance by all those striving for clarity and logicical rigor only because it requires not only consistency of thought but also unusual integrity, magnamity and-modesty." *page 45

Einstein also wrote, "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 action of human beings." * page 49


Einstein does however refute both atheism and pantheism in the following. " I'm not an atheist. and I don't think I call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a library filled with many languages. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward god. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations. I'am fascinated by Spinoza's pantheism, but admire even more his contribution to modern thought because he is the first philospher to deal with the soul and body as one, not two seperate things." * page 48

Posted by AdamWho Adam, it would behoove you to get your facts straight before throwing out something like, "Einstein was a deist".

Einstein was a brilliant man in many regards, way to brilliant a man to be dimissed with a "bon mot" by the likes of Adam Who.

Hondo

* Einstein and Religion by Max Jammer

(edited by Hondo for one minor ommision)

[ June 20, 2002: Message edited by: Hondo ]</p>

emphryio

Outside of his profession, I don't think Einstein was particularly "smarter" than the average person. He spent the vast majority of his time thinking about physics, leaving little time for philosophy, etc. Outside of physics, he even had trouble finding his way to work in the morning.

I think he "waffled" when it came to spiritual beliefs between diest and athiest.

Totalitarianist

Uh... Einstein spent a lot of time philosophising.