Einstein and the Mind of God: Einstein's God
Matt Hohenberger
Albert Einstein was a famous scientist during the mid-1900s who revealed many patterns in nature and the world we live in. His life and his science were rich with wonder, and he often made comments referring to a God or Lord. Many times though, he just used God as a sort of convenient metaphor while maintaining a cosmic religious feeling of admiration at the intellectual ingenuity of the universe.
Einstein found inspiration from wonder; this wonder was formed when one of his experiences conflicted with societies fixed ways to seeing the world. So he spent his life seeking to comprehend the order deeply hidden behind everything and to describe it mathematically. Einstein often spoke of this as his longing to understand what God was thinking.
This awe of the way the world worked and why God made it this way was the driving force behind Einstein's works. However, he did not believe in a personal God who was interested in human affairs. He did believe in nature as some sort of universal spirit which was ruled by a universal mind that is far beyond our comprehension. In this way, he was a cultural Jew, not a believing Jew. Although he did not believe in a personal God, he did develop a real reverence for Judaism. This seemed to him to be compatible with his faith while still being a scientist.
Albert Einstein took a very solemn view of science. And science was, to him, a religion. He believed that anybody who does not approach science with religious awe is not a true scientist. One of his famous quotes was, "Science without a religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." Einstein understood science and religion to be separate realms, but joined by reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Most often he stressed how both realms acknowledge and honor the human sense of mystery. Paul Davis, a physicist and astrobiologist, supports Einstein's belief in that he believes that theology was the midwife of science during Einstein's age.
Einstein not only found God in science and nature, but he found God in art and music. He thought that the most important function of art and science is to awaken the religious feeling. As a young kid he played the violin and was a passionate concertgoer. After he heard one particular solo by Yehudi Menuhin, he exclaimed, "Now I know that there is a God in heaven!"
Einstein was so in awe and love with the complexity of the world that he began to want to know how God created the world. He wanted to know His thoughts while creating everything. His God was not a personal God but a rational world order that he sometimes called a "cosmic religious feeling" in the mathematical beauty of the world. Through science and mathematics, Einstein was able to get a glimpse of the mind of God. He rejected the notion of a creator who would interfere with the laws ordering his own creations. He also could not "conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals or would sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation."
Einstein is a great example of showing how someone can have both science and relgion in their life. He even believes that a person needs both if it will be worth anything at all.
To read the transcript of this broadcast Click Here
More articles on Einstein and God Here or Here
Return to My Faith Page