In Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, Albert Einstein is depicted as an atheist. Dawkins pretty much has to go this route, because it would be a major embarassment for him if Einstein was a religious believer. Afer all, Dawkins seeks to show that theism is pretty much incompatible with modern science. If Einstein disagrees, then who is Dawkins to say otherwise?
Moreover, as I show in my new book What's So Great About Christianity, most of the great scientists of the past 500 years (Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Brahe, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Gassendi, Pascal, Mersenne, Cuvier, Harvey, Dalton, Faraday, Herschel, Joule, Lyell, Lavoisier, Priestley, Kelvin, Ohm, Ampere, Steno, Pasteur, Maxwell, Planck, Mendel, Lemaitre) were devout Christians. Gassendi, Mersenne and Lemaitre were priests.
Faced with this daunting list of believers, Dawkins is desperate to wrest Einstein for the atheist camp.
The problem for Dawkins is that Einstein repeatedly refers to God. Famously Einstein said "God is subtle but He is not malicious" and "God does not play dice" with the universe. Dawkins rewrites Einstein's remarks. "God does not play dice" becomes "Randomness does not lie at the heart of all things." Dawkins insists that his revisions are justified because "Einstein was using 'God' in a purely metaphorical, poetic sense."
Dawkins' case for Einstein's atheism is based on quotations from Max Jammer's book Einstein and Religion. At best, Dawkins writes, Einstein was a pantheist who identified God with the laws of nature themselves. But when philosopher Anthony Flew went to the original source, he discovered that Dawkins had lifted quotations favorable to his case while excluding statements that refuted it. Einstein specifically repudiated both the atheist and the pantheist label. "I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist." Dawkins forgot to include that line. While Einstein clearly stated that he did not believe in a "personal God" he also spoke of God as a "superior mind," "Illimitable spirit" and "mysterious force that moves the constellations."
Einstein spoke of the laws of nature pointing to an Infinite Mind that to him represented the true nature of God. "Every one who is seriously engaged in te pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble...My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details that we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God."
Isn't it interesting that these quotations appear nowhere in Dawkins' book. It seems that atheists like Dawkins have to suppress the facts in order to establish their theories. Can an atheism so selective and indeed manipulative actually claim to be sustained by evidence and reason?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 51)
1. Dinesh,
I took a physics seminar for non-science majors at the University of Michigan. The professor had a friend of his lecture for one class. His name was Victor Weisskopf, and he was professor emeritus at MIT, having been the chairman of the physics department.
He also was one of the many scientists who worked on the Manhatten Project.
Prof. Weisskopf's lecture was on the Big Bang theory. When the class was almost over, he wrapped up by asking what caused the Big Bang.
He answered by writing on the blackboard, "GOD." Prof. Weisskopf went on to say that he couldn't prove that God made the Big Bang, but it was the only theory that had no flaws. He also said that many of his colleagues disagreed with him, but as a believer, God has to fit into science at some point.
Kent at 3:41AM on Oct 9th 2007
2. So if, "god" caused the "big bang," where did "god" come from? You christians are no Einsteins.
Captain Negative at 3:56AM on Oct 9th 2007
3. Well since Eienstein said he did not believe in God, and wrote it, I guess that rather settles it.
Almost all scientists are atheists. It comes with knowledge.
Of course there is the Templton Group. They tried to prove God exists by showing pray helps heal people who are sick. Result? Pray does nothing, at total waste of time.
cdnbirch at 4:21AM on Oct 9th 2007
4. some feel so compelled to prove that there is no God.if you really feel that way why waste your time? if i'm wrong so what, if you are wrong ,eternal hell,,,yes God is real
larry adkins at 5:45AM on Oct 9th 2007
5. Simple no one, including Eienstein has the mind to grasp how great God is.The biggest grain of salt is still just a grain of salt. Even Eienstein had limits.
Danny Iglesias at 6:02AM on Oct 9th 2007
6. Dear God,
Thank you for all these geniuses. It is such a relief to find a world where nothing counts, not even spelling.
amen
Jim Fay at 6:12AM on Oct 9th 2007
7. Hello God? It's me Margaret; Dinesh is a complete idiot. Dinesh what kind of worthless crap are you trying to write about? Einstein said he didn't believe in God. YOUR article fails to mention that. Time after time you write a one sided article that claims that the person you are attacking is one sided. Go back to wherever you come from and hold your head in shame. I win. You lose.
pletho at 6:29AM on Oct 9th 2007
8. Didn't Einstein refer to Buddhism as the perfect religion? I'll see if I can dig up the quote. No logician could support the idea of a 'creator God'.
Einstein recognized the limitations of science, certainly, something Dawkins seems to circumvent.
Einsteins parents were, as was typical in Germany, 'non-observant' Jews, agnostic at least, but Albert rebelled by going the opposite way as a boy. When he was 14 and began to get an idea of just how vast the universe is and how small he was and how unlikely it would be for him to ever truly know anything that he became suicidal, even.
tom at 6:40AM on Oct 9th 2007
9. if God didn't create the universe then how does the earth and other planets spin perfectly in their orbit? If the earth's axis was off even by one one hundredth of a degree the earth would spin eratically and at a rate which would make it unliveable. Let's face it if scientists were so smart they would come up with a better theory than that we came from some little micro organism that evolved into monkeys and then into humans. Do I smell bananas? If i am wrong by being a christian and believeing in god when i die i will just be buried in the ground and life as we know it will be over, but if you don't believe in god and die and you are wrong and there really is a god the bible says that you are going to hell. It's your choice to make.
barry walter at 6:42AM on Oct 9th 2007
10. Barry, I respect your situation, but is fear of punishment in the afterlife a good basis for a religious life?
tom at 6:45AM on Oct 9th 2007
11. And Larry also, is fear of punishment in the afterlife a good basis for a religious life?
tom at 6:48AM on Oct 9th 2007
12. Here we are, from Albert himself. I'll post again if I find these are not accurate but they do jibe with my memory of this.
-Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spritual; and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. -Albert Einstein
How could you have missed this, D'nesh? Seems impossible. Didn't you just write a book on religion?
tom at 6:53AM on Oct 9th 2007
13. Why there are so many religions and only one atheism? There is only one truth and so many gods and religions very often contradictory, are only attempts to find the answer for big WHY. If there is only one truth, than atheism is the only one and multiple answers for WHY do not represent the truth. All other attempts are desperate exercises in our search for real answers and truth. Yearning for an evidence, that god is responsible for everything is no proof, that god exist. Religion(s) is only an attempt to find answer to that question. We do not know many things yet, and conclusion that god created everything, provides us with unsatisfactory answer to that big question WHY we are here, WHO created us and the Universe. Answer that god did this, does not prove that fact either. If god is eternal and nobody created god, so why it is so wrong to assume that energy, or matter was created from nothing, like god, by itself. Our starting point is exactly the same. We do not know what was before "big bang" and before god. Why there is such a desperaton to prove existence of god, inspite of lack of such a proof. Centuries of search for god did not provided us with real answers.
Disrespecting atheistic arguments, does not enhances theistic point of view either.Punishing atheists for their independent search for the truth(in the past of course), did not solve the problem WHY? Answer: "there is no god" is the only logical solution for so many conflicting religious answers.
Henryk Jakubowski at 6:58AM on Oct 9th 2007
14. Hey Barry, maybe God created humans from a microorganism that evolved over billions of years that eventually evolved into both monkeys and humans, not from monkeys. D'ouche the world is older than 6000 years.
Dennis at 7:00AM on Oct 9th 2007
15. More from Albert:
"A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compasion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security".
-Albert Einstein
Those 'optical delusion'and 'widening circle of compassion' ideas are the marks of a Buddhist, and a darn good one!
tom at 7:00AM on Oct 9th 2007