God does not play dice.
Einstein considered himself a deeply religious man and saw a connection between his religion and science. Einstein did not believe that God was an individual. In fact, he was a deist and a bit of a pantheist: he felt God and the Universe were one and, in this vein, felt the mysteries of the Universe were accessible through reason.
As far as personalized religion is concerned, Einstein frankly rejected it: feeling that religion was the product of primitivism. Einstein didn't believe in an independent soul, freedom of will, an afterlife, or divine good and evil. According to Einstein, morality is a purely human affair and without need of a divine law-giver. Nevertheless he was a strict moralist.
Einstein's religion, more than anything, was the impenetrable mystery of the cosmos. In this respect he was the consumate scientist.
Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.
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Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6(<- best article)
7 years ago
5 comments:
wow! i like/identify with his view a lot. the only place where i'm inclined to differ is with his view on freedom of will. i tend to feel that we DO have that freedom, and that perhaps it's that "subtle, intangible, and inexplicable" force he references. i don't mean that through our freedom of will we can go beyond our "sphere of creation" if you could call it that, but that our arc of life naturally creates itself along the merridian that is our strength of will. is there a way to increase/strengthen our will, i wonder? some of us are certainly more driven than others.
chaos!
Food bribery. That increases my will. Pizza, brats, or The Baconator from Wendy's.
...just kidding. I thought you'd like what he had to say.
I almost included the picture of Einstein standing on the beach looking out to sea, but the picture was a bit too wistful--I thought--when combined with the theme of the post.
I'm making it a goal to try not to filter their views on religion through my own...even though I know that's not really possible.
Cool video! That was beautiful. I'd like to see that Einstein picture, by the way. It sounds beautiful.
Love you, J!
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