- Albert Einstein

On any level, Albert Einstein was a truly exceptional human being and is rightly perceived as one of the greatest achievers not just within the history of science, but within the broader canvas of the human experience. He was both an intellectual giant and a man who possessed an instinctive morality that demanded that he try his utmost to make the world a better place. He was a man brimming over with paradoxes: a lover of humankind, but close to very few; a pacifist who advocated the creation of an atomic weapons program; and a man obsessed with a hatred of regimentation but beguiled with the strict beauty of mathematics.

In the annual Alvin Weinberg Lecture at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on 3 June 1998, Dr. Norman Ramsey, Harvard College, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, alluded to yet another confirmation of Einstein's brilliant theories. Using radio telescopes separated by the width of a continent, we can now very accurately determine the period of revolution of pulsar stars. Their frequency is seen to vary over a time period of several years. This measurement is the first evidence of the effects of gravity waves (which are postulated by Einstein's general theory of relativity).

Admirers of Einstein have often wondered what the famous scientist believed about religion, and for good reason. Not only was he a brilliant scientist, he was also a philosopher of some note. Much of what he had to say about religion was deeply thought out. In his writings he offers a potential link of science-to-religion (or, more properly, spirituality) that we may present to our community. He suggests a way to fulfil one's own human need for spirituality. But did Einstein's beliefs differ from those of a material atheist? To Einstein, who was God?

The son of irreligious (Jewish) parents, Albert Einstein came to a deep religiosity that ended abruptly at the age of 12. Through reading of popular scientific books, he concluded that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was an orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived. Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude "which has never left me."

In his writings, there are well-known references to God and frequent discussions of religion. Although Einstein stated that he was religious and that he believed in God, it was in his own specialized sense that he used these terms. Many are aware that Einstein was not religious in the conventional sense, but it will come as a surprise to some to learn that he clearly identified himself as an atheist and as an agnostic.

Part of the popular picture of Einstein's God and religion comes from a few well-known statements, such as: "God is cunning but He is not malicious," or "God is subtle but he is not bloody-minded." He once said, "God is slick, but he ain't mean," and on many occasions, Einstein said, "God does not play dice." He is also known to have said, "I want to know how God created the world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details."

Albert Einstein believed that the motive behind all spiritual movements was twofold: the sentiments for "feeling" (the assuagement of pain) and "longing" (for deeply felt needs). What feelings and needs have led humans to religious thought and belief? To him, there have been, and are, three types of religion: 1) religions of fear, 2) social or moral religions, and 3) a religious experience which belongs to all of them, though rarely found in a pure form, that he referred to as "cosmic religious feeling."

Religions of fear are those that developed from fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death, etc. Since humans initially had a poor understanding of causal connections, the human mind created illusory beings and attempted to secure the favor of these beings. Such religions were stabilized by the formation of a special priestly caste. Social or moral religions developed when humans realized that their fathers, mothers, and leaders were mortal and fallible. Their desire for guidance, love, support, comfort in sorrow, and their unsatisfied longings resulted in such religions. The Jewish religion and New Testament Christianity illustrate the development from a religion of fear to a moral religion. Einstein felt that religions of all civilized people, especially people of the Orient, are primarily moral religions.

The truth, he thought, is that all religions are a varying blend of both types, and that on the higher levels of social life the religion of morality predominates. Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. In other words, humans created gods in their own image, with feelings like theirs and who cared about the goings on and affairs of the world and its inhabitants.

The third stage of religious experience that belongs to all of them, though rarely found in a pure form, Einstein called "cosmic religious feeling," noting the difficulty of elucidating this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it. In such a religious experience, there is no anthropomorphic conception of God. The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses the individual as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. Albert Einstein saw the beginnings of this "cosmic religious feeling" in the Psalms of David and in some of the prophets. Buddhism contains a much stronger element of it. He felt that religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling. It knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's image. It has no church with central teachings. These religious individuals can be found among the heretics of every age and are regarded as atheists (and sometimes as saints), like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza.

Einstein felt that it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it. In fact, we arrive at a conception of the relationship of science and religion very different from the usual one. Historically, one is inclined to view science and religion as irreconcilable antagonists: universal laws of causation versus a being who interferes in the course of events. Einstein had no use for a religion of fear, and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes is inconceivable, he thought. He felt a man's actions were determined by necessity, so in God's eyes he could not be responsible. Since Einstein did not believe in freedom of will, he was reconciled with the (often painful) actions of others; and this philosophy kept him from taking himself and others too seriously. It kept him from losing his temper.

Science is accused of undermining morality, an unjust charge in Einstein's view. Ethical behavior should be based on sympathy, education and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. He thought man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. It was easy to him to see why the churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees.

Einstein, however, maintained that "cosmic religious feeling" is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research, that the strength of this emotion is necessary to provide the impetus for the immense efforts and devotion required to advance theoretical science, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life. Kepler and Newton, he felt, must have had a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the Mind revealed in this world. This enabled them to spend years of solitary labor in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics. He felt that those acquainted with scientific research chiefly because of its practical results develop a false notion of the mentality of these men. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired such men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose. To Einstein, that inspiration must have been "cosmic religious feeling."

Einstein felt that the sense of the mysterious was the most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have, the underlying principle of religion and of all serious endeavor in art and science. Those who have never had this experience seemed to Einstein, if not dead, then at least blind. Behind everything one experiences lies something that our mind cannot grasp. The beauty and sublimity of this something reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection. To him, it sufficed to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with his mind a mere "image" of "the lofty structure of all that there is." Only in this sense, Einstein said he was a deeply religious man.

An individual who should survive his physical death was beyond his comprehension, nor did he wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Einstein said, "Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvelous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavor to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature." He felt the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future to him is every whit as necessary and determined as the past.

He noted that one of his contemporaries had said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people. Present day conflicts between the spheres of religion and of science lies in the concept of a personal God. The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. Neither the rule of humans nor the rule of divine will exist as an independent cause of natural events. Einstein admits that the concept of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted by science; this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But to stoop to such behavior is unworthy of the representatives of religion, and for them to do so would be fatal to the cause of religion and do great harm to human progress.

Einstein thought that, in their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must give up the doctrine of a personal God (the source of fear and hope that placed such vast power in the hands of priests). They should seek the cultivation of those forces that are capable of reclaiming the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself - a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task. They will surely recognize with joy that true religion has been ennobled and made more profound by scientific knowledge.

Those inspired by Albert Einstein's type of religion are placed under an inward moral authority that can keep them conscious of the personal and super-personal values to which they may devote themselves and so find a sense of moral direction and judgment that gives meaning and purpose to their lives. This enables them to know without rational proof, without fear of punishment in Hell, or without any hope of heavenly rewards, that their lives have meaning and worth, in so far as what they do "makes the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful." This type of religion has potential for giving one affinity with the totality of things, through the sense of harmony made manifest in nature - a religion that enables one to find in humanity itself those forces "which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful."

Albert Einstein's morals and ethics seemed to be based upon compassion and sympathy. There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair. A man's ethical behavior should be based on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Einstein humbly confesses that as far as he can know and understand there is no thoughtful or willful being or force beyond man that is concerned with or interested in human values. He has no reason whatsoever to justify a belief that there is any source of morality greater than the feeling of sympathy or reverence for life that is manifested in human beings. Therefore, there is no superhuman or divine source of morality. "It is a purely human affair." And while he did not think there was a grand purpose to our existence, he certainly believed that we do have our own human purpose in our daily lives. We are here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for other beings whose lives are connected with our own. He felt that his own life was based to a large extent on the work of his fellow human beings.

In Einstein's opinion, one could not speak of the meaning of life in an objective sense as one speaks, for instance, of the mass of the sun. He saw no possibility of such objective meaning outside of the human sphere. So what is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implied, to Einstein, a religion. He held that the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow-creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.

For Einstein, life is sacred. It is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate. These conclusions were similar to those of Albert Schweitzer. There is a kind of dualism in their thinking that they do not pretend to reconcile, yet they lived with the conviction that what may be known objectively and what is sensed subjectively are somehow parts of the same whole. To Einstein, the purpose of science is to develop without prejudice a knowledge of the facts and the laws of nature.

The even more important task of religion, on the other hand, is to develop the conscience, the ideals and the aspirations of mankind. The previous statement (and a few others), standing alone, may give the impression that in Einstein's thinking, religion and science have nothing in common. However, the religion that seems to be reflected in Einstein's writings and activities is a result of the infusion of his scientific search for truth and his emotional search for ideals, motives and goals. Albert Einstein's regard for the individual invoked distaste for violence and clubmanship. Privileges based on position and property seemed unjust and pernicious, as did any personality cult. He seemed to be a populist by nature, despising affluence and luxury a good deal, with a passion for social justice. He was a pacifist, an anti-militarist, and was against any nationalism (even in the guise of patriotism). Einstein was an adherent of the ideal of democracy, but he knew its weaknesses. He felt the communal aims of the state should be social equality and economic protection of the individual.

In the summer of 1945, just before the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein wrote a letter stating his position as an atheist, in response to Ensign Guy H. Raner's letter inquiring about his religious views. Four years later, Raner asked Einstein for further clarification (perhaps, he wondered, Einstein had meant, by "atheist," a non-Catholic; e.g., an orthodox Jew, or a Deist). Einstein's answer is given in a 2^nd letter to Raner. He stated, "You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being."

In the well-known biography, Albert Einstein, Creator and Rebel, by Banesh Hoffmann (1972), the author quotes most of Einstein's 1945 letter, but maddeningly leaves out Einstein's statement, "From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist." Hoffman's biography was written with the collaboration of Helen Dukas, Einstein's secretary. Freeman Dyson (in 1996) notes "that Helen wanted the world to see the Einstein of legend, the friend of school children and impoverished students, the gently ironic philosopher, the Einstein without violent feelings and tragic mistakes." Dyson also notes that he thought Dukas "profoundly wrong in trying to hide the true Einstein from the world." Perhaps her well-intentioned protectionism included the elimination of Einstein as atheist.

Although not a favorite of physicists, Einstein, The Life and Times, by the professional biographer Ronald W. Clark (1971), offers one of the best summaries on Einstein's God. It was not the God of most men. When he wrote of religion, as he often did in middle and later life, he tended to clothe with different names what to many ordinary mortals - and to most Jews - looked like a variant of simple agnosticism. Only later were his sentiments dignified by the title of "cosmic religion," a phrase which gave plausible respectability to the views of a man who did not believe in a life after death and who felt that if virtue paid off in the earthly one, then this was the result of cause and effect rather than celestial reward. Einstein's God thus stood for an orderly system obeying rules which could be discovered by those who had the courage, the imagination, and the persistence to go on searching for them.

Einstein continued to search, even to the last days of his 76 years, but his search was not for the God of Abraham or Moses. His search was for the order and harmony of the world. The words with which this article began might bear repeating. "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

References

1) About Religion: Religion and Science, written expressly for the New York Times Magazine. Appeared there November 9, 1930 (pp. 1-4). The German text was published in the Berliner Tageblatt, November 11, 1930.

2) My Credo, a speech given by Albert Einstein to the German League of Human Rights, Berlin, autumn 1932 (Contained in an article given to me by my son, Adam, in 1998).