Einstein: A religious agnostic



Einstein at 14

According to Wikipedia, Albert Einstein was born into a family of “non-observant Jews.”  This, in and of itself, is a somewhat paradoxical phrase which can lead to questions such as:  If one is non-observant of a religion, is one still an adherent of that religion?  If the answer is “yes” - can that religion then be (dangerously at times) also thought of as a race?

This paradox was only the first of many that were associated with Einstein’s religiosity (or lack thereof).  Given Einstein’s prominent stature as a physicist, it was only natural that people began turning to him for cosmological answers.  Therefore, a wealth of material (much of which comes from Einstein’s own writings) exists concerning his philosophical views about God and Creation.

In a 1950 letter, Einstein declared:  My position concerning God is that of an agnostic.  The word “agnostic” is said to have been coined by T. H. Huxley in 1869 from the Greek word “agnotos” (“not known, incapable of being known”).  Dictionary.com therefore defines an agnostic as “a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.”  In other words, even if the essential and ultimate nature of things were knowable – they might not be knowable within the realm of human experience.

This definition certainly fits in with some of Einstein’s other autobiographical disclosures.  As a youth, he attempted to free himself “from the ‘chains’ of the merely personal” (including from the ‘chains’ of the personal, rewarding-punishing, law-giving God of the Bible).  As an adult, Einstein reaffirmed this quest by stating:  It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept that I cannot take seriously.

When asked by a rabbi if he believes in God, Einstein replied:  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.  Can this be deemed “religious” in its own way?  Merriam-Webster seems to think so by listing one definition of “religion” as:  a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.

Did Einstein have ardent faith?  Read his words, and decide for yourself:  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.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/agnostic

Copyright March 14, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved