Einstein on a Personal God
The following excerpts are taken from Albert Einstein -
The Human Side, Selected and Edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh
Hoffman, Princeton University Press, 1979.
From pp. 42 - 44
On 22 March 1954 a self-made man sent Einstein in Princeton a long
handwritten letter-four closely packed pages in English. The correspondent
despaired that there were so few people like Einstein who had the courage
to speak out, and he wondered if it would not be best to return the world
to the animals. Saying "I presume you would like to know who I am," he
went on to tell in detail how he had come from Italy to the United States
at the age of nine, arriving in bitter cold weather, as a result of which
his sisters died while he barely survived; how after six months of
schooling he went to work at age ten; how at age seventeen he went to
Evening School; and so on, so that now he had a regular job as an
experimental machinist, had a spare-time business of his own, and had some
patents to his credit. He declared himself an atheist. He said that real
education came from reading books. He cited an article about Einstein's
religious beliefs and expressed doubts as to the article's accuracy. He
was irreverent about various aspects of formal religion, speaking about
the millions of people who prayed to God in many languages, and remarking
that God must have an enormous clerical staff to keep track of all their
sins. And he ended with a long discussion of the social and political
systems of Italy and the United States that it would take too long to
describe here. He also enclosed a check for Einstein to give to charity.
On 24 March 1954 Einstein answered in English as follows:
I get hundreds and hundreds of letters but seldom one so interesting
as yours. I believe that your opinions about our society are quite
reasonable. 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. I have no possibility to
bring the money you sent me to the appropriate receiver. I return it
therefore in recognition of your good heart and intention. Your letter
shows me also that wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the
lifelong attempt to acquire it.
From p. 66
There is in the Einstein Archives a letter dated 5 August 1927 from a
banker in Colorado to Einstein in Berlin. Since it begins "Several months
ago I wrote you as follows," one may assume that Einstein had not yet
answered. The banker remarked that most scientists and the like had given
up the idea of God as a bearded, benevolent father figure surrounded by
angels, although many sincere people worship and revere such a God. The
question of God had arisen in the course of a discussion in a literary
group, and some of the members decided to ask eminent men to send their
views in a form that would be suitable for publication. He added that some
twenty-four Nobel Prize winners had already responded, and he hoped that
Einstein would too. On the letter, Einstein wrote the following in German.
It may or may not have been sent:
I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the
actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures
of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that
mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by
modern science. 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.
Morality is of the highest importance-but for us, not for God.
From pp. 69-70
A Chicago Rabbi, preparing a lecture on "The Religious Implications of
the Theory of Relativity," wrote to Einstein in Princeton on 20 December
1939 to ask some questions on the topic. Einstein replied as follows:
I do not believe that the basic ideas of the theory of relativity can
lay claim to a relationship with the religious sphere that is different
from that of scientific knowledge in general. I see this connection in
the fact that profound interrelationships in the objective world can be
comprehended through simple logical concepts. To be sure, in the theory
of relativity this is the case in particularly full measure. The
religious feeling engendered by experiencing the logical
comprehensibility of profound interrelations is of a somewhat different
sort from the feeling that one usually calls religious. It is more a
feeling of awe at the scheme that is manifested in the material
universe. It does not lead us to take the step of fashioning a god-like
being in our own image-a personage who makes demands of us and who takes
an interest in us as individuals. There is in this neither a will nor a
goal, nor a must, but only sheer being. For this reason, people of our
type see in morality a purely human matter, albeit the most important in
the human sphere.
Editorial comments in this section on Einstein are by
Prof. Arnold V. Lesikar, Physics Dept., St. Cloud State University, St.
Cloud, MN 56301-4498. He would appreciate any feedback or comments.
lesikar@stcloudstate.edu
