There is much confusion about Einstein's religious beliefs, in particular about his views on the existence of God. Some think that Einstein was an atheist. Others have a different opinion. An analysis of the various statements made by Einstein about his views will show that Einstein was not an atheist, and was in doubt about the existence of God.
In 1997, Skeptic, a science magazine, published for the first time a series of letters that Einstein exchanged in 1945 with an officer in the US Navy named Guy Raner Jr, on the existence of God. Raner wanted to know if it was true that Einstein converted from atheism to theism on being confronted by a Jesuit priest with the following argument: A design requires a designer, and since the universe has a design, it must have a designer. Einstein wrote back that he had never spoken to a Jesuit priest in his life, but that from the viewpoint of such a person, he was and would always be an atheist. He added that it was misleading and childish to use anthropomorphic concepts in dealing with things outside the human sphere and that all we could do was to admire, in humility, the beautiful harmony of the structure of this world as far as we can grasp it.
A design requires a designer, and since the universe has a design, it must have a designer.
Raner replied, asking for clarification of Einstein’s position, “Are you, from the viewpoint of the dictionary, an atheist, one who disbelieves in the existence of a God or a Supreme Being”?
To this, Einstein replied, “I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist, whose fervour is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.”
The view that Einstein holds about the existence of God is the same that almost all scientists hold. They consider themselves agnostics — neither acknowledging the existence of God nor denying it. The subject of scientific study is the material world. The material world is the creation of the Creator. Scientific study is, therefore, the study of God’s creation. A scientist can deny the existence of a Creator, but it is impossible for him to deny the signs of the Creator in His creation. In truth, the physical world contains many incredible realities that are beyond material comprehension. For example, meaningful design, intelligence, purposeful planning, etc. These properties in the physical world are an indirect affirmation of the existence of God.
To justify this opinion, one method that we can use is to evaluate whether or not scientific discoveries are in conformity with the concept of the existence of God. This method of establishing a viewpoint can be called ‘verificationism’.
Another argument we can use can be called ‘the principle of compatibility’. This means that if a premise which in itself is not demonstrable is compatible with existing known and demonstrable discoveries, we can accept it as true. If this method is applied to the concept of the existence of God, then the existence of God becomes established.
Acknowledgement of Science
Scientific studies have shown that there exists a high order of intelligence and planning in the universe. There is incredible harmony in the universe. These facts have been acknowledged by many world renowned scientists, such as Sir James Jeans, Arthur Eddington, Albert Einstein, David Foster, Fred Hoyle, etc. It has been established that the essence of the universe is ‘intelligence’. In the words of a scientist: Molecular biology has conclusively proved that the ‘matter’ of organic life, our very flesh, really is mind-stuff.
In 1927, a Belgian scientist, Georges Lemaitre, proposed the concept of the Big Bang. Further research on his proposal resulted in what is now widely accepted as the model of the universe. In 1965, cosmic background radiation—ripples of microwave radiation found every- where in space with no discernible source—was attributed to the Big Bang. This radiation was the remnant of the Big Bang. On observing this radiation, Joel Primack, an American scientist, observed: 'the ripples are no less than the handwriting of God'.
George Fitzgerald Smoot is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer. In 1992, when he announced the discovery of ripples in the heat radiation still arriving from the Big Bang, he said it was 'like seeing the face of God'.
Theory of Everything
Although Albert Einstein was born in a Jewish family, after scientific study he had become doubtful about the existence of God. A year before his death in 1954, he wrote a letter to a Jewish philosopher, Eric B. Gutkind, where he said:
The word God was nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses.
What Einstein refers to as ‘human weakness’ is not really a weakness but a characteristic feature of man. This characteristic feature has been aptly described in the following words: ‘Man is an explanationseeking animal.’ This characteristic feature of man is the foundation of all progress. On the basis of this feature, man seeks out an explanation for all things, thereby reaching the great discoveries that make all developments in civilization possible. If it were not for this feature in man, human civilization would have remained in a state of total ignorance.
