Einstein and the Equation of Faith
The greatest scientific mind of the 20th century pronounced religion "childish." Was Einstein truly an atheist? Or were his complex thoughts on faith a logical continuation of his work in physics?
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In 1954 Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the philosopher Eric Gutkind in which he is reported to have written lines unfriendly both to the Jews and the whole notion of faith.
The letter, which goes on auction this week has received a fair amount of coverage with headlines blaring the sensational news that Einstein thought the bible, “childish”, religion “a superstition” and that he saw nothing special about the Jews.
Einstein’s numerous and easily found pronouncements on the issues of God, faith and religion have revealed him to be the sort of peculiar hybrid not uncommon in scientific fields. No atheist, Einstein nevertheless characterized the notion of a personal and interactive God as a prideful one. The discoveries wrought through his curious mind reminded him, always, of all he did not know, and he wrote of the “superior spirit” and the “harmony” that connected and ran through everything with a genuine sense of wonder that could be described as a rather humble agnosticism.
“In the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.” (The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 2000)
“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.” (The Human Side, Princeton University Press)
What makes the Gutkind letter so headline-grabbing sensational is the usefulness of its content. In this era of the “new atheism” where Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and others proselytize their doctrine of faithlessness with the fervor of Elmer Gantry in his roiling tents, the opportunity to bring an undisputed genius into the fray and use the hammer of his intellectual credibility against “childish” believers is, for some, irresistible. If Einstein will not help them in their argument against the existence of a Creator Being, or God, he can - through the cache of his name and this letter - give a vague validation to the adolescent schoolyard tactic of mocking and belittling those with whom one differs. It is a tactic that requires all the thoughtfulness and study of a bumpersticker: “Einstein says you people are childish! Einstein! You gonna argue with Einstein?”
In truth, while Einstein had his own distinctive reverence, he was no more an authority on religion than Pope Benedict XVI is on quantum physics. But prominence and undisputed genius in any field has the spill-over effect of lending credence and authority to voices so publicly acclaimed, even when they speak outside of their expertise. Writing out of scope, Einstein makes a personal observation based on his own feelings:
“…the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”
Here the Father of Relativity, speaking from his agnostic/humanist perspective quite unwittingly sets himself up to be exploited (54 years after the fact) as “the Credible Jew” who - enlightened by doubt - reveals the ordinary-ness of the Jewish people. In an age where attention to headline crawls and soundbites have become substitutes for thoughtful reading or exposition, that line will see a lot of airplay and repetition as it is grabbed by the ascendant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel factions currently holding sway over the intellects and imaginations of too many.
It is not surprising that Einstein, looking at Jews merely as other created creatures walking about in this awesome creation, would see nothing special about them. It could be argued that Einstein saw everything as “special” through the lens of unknowing in which he peered; when everything is “special,” subtle distinctions can be hard to spot. Disinterested in the myths and “primitive” stories of faith, and unwilling to consider the notion of a personal God who loves a people and “sets his tent amongst” his creation, Einstein could not be expected to grasp the connecting threads that run parallel through the history of the Jews and the history of the world, any more than a devout rabbi, disinterested in anything beyond the Torah, could connect time to space and render it an equation.
There is a story that Pope Benedict and the journalist Peter Seewald recount in the book, God and the World, which is essentially a three day conversation between the unbeliever Seewald, and then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. It goes like this: A mother brought her son to the rabbi, and the rabbi said to the boy; “I will give you a guilder if you can tell me where God lives.” The boy thought for only a moment and then said, “And I will give you two guilders if you can tell me where he doesn’t live.”
Everything Albert Einstein ever had to say about God and Creation can be rather precisely summed up in that story, and it is, in fact, a story of faith - humble, unknowing-yet-knowing faith. Einstein, the scientist in awe of the “supreme spirit” who created “harmony” and “the music of the spheres” would likely have concurred with it.
Because Einstein appreciated mystery, though, and the undercurrent of perfect connectedness which echoes throughout creation, one wonders if he might not have come to appreciate the “specialness” of the Jews, had he only considered the unprecedented nature of their survival throughout history. The Jewish people, suffering exile, suppression, slaughter, Diaspora are still here; their religion has not disappeared. It suggests an almost scientifically pleasing “survival of the fittest.” Touching on that, Ratzinger says to Seewald:
“It seems to me quite obvious [that the development of the world has a mysterious connection with the Jewish people]. The way that this tiny people, who no longer have any country, no longer any independent existence but lead their life scattered throughout the world…keep their own religion, keep their own identity; they are still Israel…The great powers of that period have all disappeared. Ancient Egypt and Babylon and Assyria no longer exist. Israel remains, and shows us something of the steadfastness of God, something indeed of his mystery.”
Einstein might have liked that.
“I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know his thoughts. The rest are details.” (Clarck, The life and Times of Einstein. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1971)
His letter to Gutkind will undoubtedly be used by some as a heavy stone, meant to pound away at this consciousness of faith and a Chosen people, until it goes silent. But Einstein’s personal musings, had he subjected them to the further scrutiny of the very connectedness he loved, may well have led him, surprisingly, to the rest of the equation.
Elizabeth Scalia is a freelance writer and columnist for InsideCatholic.com and blogs at www.theanchoressonline.com.
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20 Comments
1. ajacksonian:From reading Einstein and of him his greatest view was that the universe was reasonable: it could be reasoned out as it all worked. His greatest dilemma after Relativity was seeing that there was little connection between the Quantum and Relativity, he did not like that and said that God did not play dice with the Universe. His last years were spent trying to reconcile the two views - where relativity makes rational the large scale, quantum physics brings indeterminancy into the smallest scale. Yet both exist and inter-work in the same universe, they are not separate realms and for physicists and cosmologists trying to find how it all does work together becomes the fascinating journey in and of itself.
Einstein could not reconcile the two views of the universe via mathematics and physics. For the greatness of Relativity his Grand Unified Theory did not come to him nor those that followed and none can denigrate him for that work even if it failed. As we come to understand the quantum view we see new vistas that open up before us and, strangely, ones based on reasoning through what that view means. If, truly, one word brought the universe into being it is a word of reason, of forethought, of decision as a chaotic muster would lead to ever present chaos. And yet chaos has a part of our world at its smallest basis, yet reason is built atop it. If that be grandeur from a single word then it makes all later words pale in comparison: it was a complex and deep word to make things that way.
If there was no word, if the universe exists as random part of chaos given order by chance, then understanding that, too, is deeply important. Even better it is the *exact same quest* as looking at a universe from a single word of reason, as our place in such a universe is based on how we comprehend and deal with what surrounds us. It is in that understanding and appreciation of it that we learn the limits of who we are, what we can do and what we should do. A universe sans creator requires us to understand those limits and that there are good and bad outcomes to decisions and reason through them… just like in one of a single word of reason with single creator.
Just as with liberty we set aside perfect liberty, where each has no law above them save that of Nature red in tooth and claw, and reach out for commonality between our fellow man. That requires reasoning and accountability for our place in that relationship. A relationship balanced between perfect order and no liberty and perfect liberty with no order. Between those extremes we live and balance and think through our lives and with those around us… just as we do between the quantum and cosmological, our place is between those and our meaning is in that balancing.
And even if we get some GUT theory that describes things well, the questions *that* will raise, like relativity and quantum work before it, will open up vistas we cannot now imagine… and open up new questions about our place in this realm of being, too.
May 15, 2008 - 5:35 am 2. perky pauly:If my theory of relativity is proven succesful, Germany will claim me as German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. If my theory should prove to be untrue, then France will say that I am a German, and Germany will say that I am a Jew.
- Albert Einstein, In Science
——————————-
“The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.”
May 15, 2008 - 5:37 am 3. HardHeadedWoman:- Albert Einstein
Why on earth should it matter to me whether or not Albert Einstein believed in God? What matters to me is whether or not I do.
May 15, 2008 - 6:06 am 4. Lynn:Ah, but occasionally Mr. Einstein forgot who he received his theory of relativity from!
May 15, 2008 - 6:18 am 5. Charlie (Colorado):“And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love had to her.”
Poor Albert. He’s turned into a Prophet: everyone interprets what he said to agree with their beliefs.
May 15, 2008 - 11:38 am 6. BMoon:It seems Einstein’s real beef with God was over the theological issue of the dilemma of evil - a common occurence with Jews especially who witnessed the Holocaust. I agree with the writer that it is spurious logic to equate his genius with physics to his ability to deal with profound spiritual-theological-philosphical issues. I can sing, cook, and dabble some with Plato and Wittgenstein, but I cannot for the life of me figure out my tax return (thank God for my wife.)
And for those who are symbiotically reassured with their own skepticsim about God or the Scriptures in Einstein’s pronouncements, please note that he was a socialist too. Does that comfort you?
May 15, 2008 - 12:23 pm 7. BMoon:It seems that Einstein’s beef with a personal God was one that has troubled thinkers for ages past- the dilemma of the coexistence of evil with a good God. This cynical skepticism was a common reaction by many Jews who witnessed the Holocaust. I agree with you, Elizabeth Scalia, that it is tenuous thinking to equate Einstein’s physics skills with his abiltiy to grapple with deep phiosophical-theological problems. I can cook a gourmet meal, sing and play guitar, dabble in Plato and Wittgenstein, but fall apart before a tax form (thank God for my wife.)
For the agnostics who that take symbiotic comfort in Einstein’s genius and his skepticism, please remember that he also was a virulent socialist. Does that comfort you too?
May 15, 2008 - 12:31 pm 8. A & Q: Bad:Economy, Liturgy, Bush but not BIG O! | The Anchoress:[...] But Einstein didn’t think so, and a lot of other folks don’t seem to, either. But then Einstein didn’t know everything, any more than any of us know [...]
May 15, 2008 - 1:00 pm 9. griefer:give it up elizabeth.
this post is as spinny and duplicitous as the Darwin deathbed conversion rumors.
and just as false.
Have you read Plato on the Theory of Forms?
May 15, 2008 - 1:14 pm 10. Jim C.:I recommend intentionalism.
mostly what people say is what they mean.
“Einstein refused to join or endorse an international commission headed by John Dewey to investigate the Moscow Show Trials… and would subsequently write to Max Born that ‘there are increasing signs the Russian trials are not faked, but that there is a plot among those who look upon Stalin as a stupid reactionary who has betrayed the ideas of the revolution’.”
And Einstein also wrote: “I am not blind to the serious weaknesses of the Russian system of government and I would not like to live under such government. But it has, on the other side, great merits and it is difficult to decide whether it would have been possible for the Russians to survive by following softer methods”.
This paragon of wisdom and peace had some huge blind spots.
http://www.csicop.org/si/2007-03/einstein.html
May 15, 2008 - 11:36 pm 11. A Conservative Christian Environmental Blog - 'Cause the World's Not Ours to Mess Up [Ps 24:1]:[...] resurrection and auction of Einstein’s writings have opened the discussion of the genius’s faith once again. Post to: del.icio.us digg_url = ‘http://www.evaneco.com/?p=1218′; digg_title = [...]
May 16, 2008 - 6:05 am 12. Randy:Mr Einstein finally came to the same conclusion, like Solomone. G-D is trying to explain it to you but you just don’t get it. Why is Physics non linear? Because G-D does not bother to try to explain to you? Foolish is putting G-D in a small box that can be governed by the rules of man, drempt of by a man.
May 16, 2008 - 1:12 pm 13. tanstaafl:Albert E. has been a huge hero of mine since I first came upon his philosophical musings, many years ago.
His take on things religious was reinforcing of what I had evolved over time. If he found any specific doctrine or body of religious belief limiting or “childish”, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t a man of faith who stood in immense awe of It, The All and Everything.
Belief in (any given) religion and faith are not synonymous. People seem to use them interchangeably.
I also admired Einstein for his refusal to wear socks when delivering a formal paper ! He avoided being dragged into all the pretentious games, the true mark of genius
May 16, 2008 - 1:43 pm 14. comatus:Ah, just the sort of Big Talk we’ve come to expect from a Princeton man.
Heh.
May 19, 2008 - 4:31 am 15. Zack:It is my opinion that Einstein wanted to find out God for himself. Not through scripture, but through science. He wanted to solve the mystery of this universe in hopes to find the greatest power behind it all(the Superior Spirit). It is the logic of the natural universe(the natural eye)that shielded him from the truth.
May 26, 2008 - 5:36 am 16. Mark C:Gee, I’m so glad we have you to tell us what Einstein would have found if he were just a little smarter, or a little better thinker. Thanks so very much.
Jun 18, 2008 - 6:34 am 17. It Doesn’t Take an Einstein « Philosophy News:[...] was “no more an authority on religion than Pope Benedict XVI is on quantum physics,” added Catholic writer Elizabeth Scalia, who then felt obliged to compare the nonquantum physicist’s [...]
Jun 18, 2008 - 9:46 am 18. Robert Duquette:Elizabeth, it is the pious who’ve been using Einstein’s quotes about god and dice as a rock to pound at the skepticism of the unbelievers until they fell silent. Well, your own rock has backfired on you, and left you with a bloody nose.
In truth, while Einstein had his own distinctive reverence, he was no more an authority on religion than Pope Benedict XVI is on quantum physics. But prominence and undisputed genius in any field has the spill-over effect of lending credence and authority to voices so publicly acclaimed, even when they speak outside of their expertise.
The problem with this is that we’re God is involved no one has any expertise. Everyone is just guessing. Einstein was as good an athority on God as Pope Benedict or the school lunch lady.
Jun 21, 2008 - 3:14 pm 19. Thomas:Einstein was not “uninterested” in matters of faith; he simply examined them and found them unsupported and childish.
There is a difference.
I am not uninterested in the Great Pumpkin. I have examined Linus’s arguments and find them unsupported and childish.
If only I had faith . . .
What exactly is faith? And why does it so mysteriously lead people to believe in the myths that prevail in the geographic area they resided in around the age of 5 years old? Humm . . .
It’s really not a mystery. Is it?
Hense, the description “childish.”
Jun 24, 2008 - 2:11 pm 20. Thomas:Einstein was not “uninterested” in matters of faith; he simply examined them and found them unsupported and childish.
There is a difference.
I am not uninterested in the Great Pumpkin. I have examined Linus’s arguments and find them unsupported and childish.
If only I had faith . . .
What exactly is faith? And why does it so mysteriously lead people to believe in the myths that prevail in their geographic area.
It’s really not a mystery. Is it?
Jun 24, 2008 - 2:12 pm