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Question about Einstein's view of religion?

This is following on from my last question because people didn't believe that new letters by Einstein had been sold at auction - the link is http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion My question is what was Einstein - agno-atheist/deist/pantheist or theist? Also isn't it disrespectful for Christians and Jews to quote the Bible and call atheists 'Fools', yet they are up in arms crying when an atheist calls them a fool?

Public Comments

  1. Einstein was a pantheist. Fool.
  2. Einstein was a pantheist, he did not believe in a personal god. In 1929, Einstein was asked in a telegram by Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein whether he believed in God. Einstein responded by telegram: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."
  3. he was either a pantheist or pandeist, kinda hard to tell.
  4. he was an agnostic. He said he didn't believe in a personal god. But he believe that there just might be a god.
  5. I think Einstein was a deist. I don't think he was an atheist or a christian.
  6. The foolishness of man is wisdom to God
  7. Pantheist.
  8. We are involved in a fierce debate on this topic. It's painful for some of us. Misbehavior is expected and forgiven. (Imagine that) A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. (Albert Einstein) 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) I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings. (Albert Einstein) Isn't that beautiful?
  9. When we quote Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God'," we are not calling atheists fools, God is. Are you sensitive about being called a fool by God?
  10. You can make Einstein anything from an atheist to a Christian, depending upon which quotes you are using. Any answer to this question, by anyone other than Einstein, could only be a guess. Don't be too sensitive about being called a fool here. Sure Christians use that quote, but a lot of atheists make a living trying to be intellectually arrogant. Perhaps respect get respect.
  11. "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." "For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And 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 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." "A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." "I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
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