A professor at a university asked his students this question.
Is everything that exists created by God?
One student boldly replied:
Yes, created by God.
Did God create everything? asked the professor.
Yes, sir, replied the student.
The professor asked:
- If God created everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And, according to the principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.
The student fell silent when he heard this answer. The professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to the students that he proved once again that belief in God is a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said:
May I ask you a question, professor?
Of course, the professor replied.
The student stood up and asked:
Professor, cold exists?
What's question? Of course there is. Have you never been cold?
The students laughed at the young man's question.
The young man replied:
- In fact, sir , cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we think of as cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be examined to see if it has or transmits energy. Absolute zero(-460 degrees Fahrenheit) there is a total absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe how we feel in the absence of heat.
The student continued:
Professor, does darkness exist?
Of course there is.
You are wrong again, sir. Darkness doesn't exist either.. Darkness is really the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness. We can use Newton's prism to expand White light on a variety of colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a space is? You measure how much light is presented. Is not it? Darkness is a concept that a person uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.
In the end, the young man asked the professor:
Sir, does evil exist?
This time hesitantly, the professor replied:
Of course, as I said. We see him every day. Cruelty between people, many crimes and violence around the world. These examples are nothing but manifestations of evil.
To this the student replied:
- Evil does not exist, sir, or, by at least, it does not exist for itself. Evil is just the absence of God . It is like darkness and cold, a word created by man to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light and heat. Evil is the result of the absence in the human heart Divine love. It is like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of darkness that comes when there is no light.
The professor sat down... This student was a young Albert Einstein.
Nobel Prize: Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his contribution to the development of quantum theory and "for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." Einstein is one of the founders of modern physics, the creator of the theory of relativity. In December 2000 funds mass media(according to Reuters) called Einstein "the man of the second millennium".
Citizenship: Germany; later was a citizen of Switzerland and the United States.
Education: PhD (Physics), University of Zurich, Switzerland, 1905
Occupation: Examiner at the Patent Office, Bern, 1902-1908; professor of physics at the universities of Zurich, Prague, Bern and Princeton (New Jersey).
1. I want to know how God created the world. I am not interested in certain phenomena in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest is details.” (quoted in Ronald Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, London, Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1973, 33).
2. “We are like a child who has fallen into a huge library, in which there are many books on different languages. The child knows that someone wrote these books, but does not know how they were written. He does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child vaguely suspects that there is some mystical order in the arrangement of the books, but he does not know what this order is. It seems to me that even the wisest of people looks that way before God. We see that the universe is arranged in an amazing way and obeys certain laws, but we hardly understand these laws. Our limited minds are incapable of comprehending the mysterious power that moves the constellations." (Quoted in: Denis Brian, Einstein: A Life, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1996, 186).
3. “If Judaism (in the form in which it was preached by the prophets) and Christianity (in the form in which it was preached by Jesus Christ) is cleansed of all subsequent additions - especially those made by priests - then there will remain a doctrine that can heal all social diseases humanity. And the duty of every person of good will is to fight stubbornly in his little world, to the best of his ability, for the implementation of this teaching of pure humanity.” (Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, New York, Bonanza Books, 1954, 184-185).
4. “After all, haven't the fanatics of both religions exaggerated the differences between Judaism and Christianity? We all live by the will of God and develop almost identical spiritual abilities. Jew or Gentile, slave or free, we all belong to God.” (quoted in H.G. Garbedian, Albert Einstein: Maker of Universes, New York, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1939, 267).
5. “Everyone who is seriously engaged in science comes to the realization that in the laws of nature a Spirit is manifested, which is much higher than human, - a Spirit in the face of which we, with our limited forces, must feel our own weakness. In this sense, scientific research leads to a religious feeling of a special kind, which really differs in many ways from more naive religiosity. (A statement made by Einstein in 1936. Quoted in: Dukas and Hoffmann, Albert Einstein: The Human Side, Princeton University Press, 1979, 33).
6. "The deeper a person penetrates into the secrets of nature, the more he reveres God." (Cited in Brian 1996, 119).
7. “The most beautiful and deepest experience that falls to the lot of a person is the feeling of mystery. It lies at the heart of true science. Anyone who has not experienced this feeling, who is no longer in awe, is practically dead. This deep emotional certainty in the existence of a higher rational force, revealed in the incomprehensibility of the Universe, is my idea of God. (Cited in Libby Anfinsen 1995).
8. "My religion consists in a feeling of modest admiration for the boundless rationality, manifesting itself in the smallest details of that picture of the world, which we are only able to partially embrace and know with our mind." (A statement made by Einstein in 1936. Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann 1979, 66).
9. "The more I study the world, the stronger my faith in God." (Cited in Holt 1997).
10. Max Yammer (Professor Emeritus of Physics, author of the biographical book Einstein and Religion, 2002), claims that widely famous saying"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind" - Einstein's quintessence of the religious philosophy of the great scientist. (Jammer 2002; Einstein 1967, 30).
11. "In the Judeo-Christian religious tradition we find the highest principles by which we must guide all our endeavors and judgments. Our weak forces are not enough to reach this highest goal, but it forms a reliable foundation for all our aspirations and value judgments. (Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years, New Jersey, Littlefield, Adams and Co., 1967, 27).
12. “Despite all the harmony of the cosmos, which I, with my limited mind, is still able to perceive, there are those who claim that there is no God. But what annoys me the most is that they quote me to support their views.” (Cited in Clark 1973, 400; Jammer 2002, 97).
13. About fanatical atheists, Einstein wrote: “There are also fanatical atheists whose intolerance is akin to that of religious fanatics, and it comes from the same source. They are like slaves, still feeling the weight of the chains thrown off after a hard struggle. They rebel against the "opium of the people" - the music of the spheres is unbearable for them. The miracle of nature does not become less because it can be measured by human morality and human goals". (Cited in Max Jammer, Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology, Princeton University Press, 2002, 97).
14. "True religion is real life, life with the whole soul, with all its goodness and righteousness." (Quoted in Garbedian 1939, 267).
15. “Behind all the greatest achievements of science is confidence in the logical orderliness and cognizability of the world - a confidence that is akin to a religious experience ... This deep emotional confidence in the existence of a higher rational force, which opens in the incomprehensibility of the Universe, is my idea of God.” (Einstein 1973, 255).
16. "Intense mental activity and the study of God's Nature - these are the angels that will guide me through all the hardships of this life, give me comfort, strength and uncompromisingness." (Quoted in Calaprice 2000, ch. 1).
17. Einstein's opinion about Jesus Christ was expressed in his interview with the American magazine The Saturday Evening Post (The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929):
What influence did Christianity have on you?
As a child, I studied both the Bible and the Talmud. I'm Jewish, but I'm fascinated bright personality Nazarene.
Have you read the book about Jesus written by Emil Ludwig?
Emil Ludwig's portrait of Jesus is too superficial. Jesus is so big that it defies the pen of phrasemongers, even very skilled ones. Christianity cannot be rejected only on the basis of a red word.
Do you believe in the historical Jesus?
Of course! It is impossible to read the Gospel without feeling the real presence of Jesus. His personality breathes in every word. No myth has such a powerful vitality."
Sometimes you need to use Wikipedia.
Einstein's religious views have been a subject of longstanding controversy. Some claim that Einstein believed in the existence of God, others call him an atheist. Both those and others used the words of the great scientist to confirm their point of view.
In 1921, Einstein received a telegram from New York rabbi Herbert Goldstein: "Do you believe in God full stop 50 words." Einstein kept within 24 words: "I believe in Spinoza's God, who manifests himself in the natural harmony of being, but not at all in God, who is busy with the destinies and deeds of people." Even more bluntly, he expressed himself in an interview with The New York Times (November 1930): “I do not believe in a God who rewards and punishes, in a God whose goals are molded from our human goals. I do not believe in the immortality of the soul, although weak minds, possessed by fear or absurd selfishness, find refuge in such a belief.
In 1940, he described his views in the journal Nature, in an article entitled "Science and Religion". There he writes:
In my opinion, a religiously enlightened person is one who, to the maximum extent possible for him, has freed himself from the fetters of selfish desires and is absorbed in thoughts, feelings and aspirations, which he holds due to their superpersonal character ... regardless of whether an attempt is made to connect it with a divine being, for otherwise it would not be possible to consider Buddha or Spinoza as religious personalities. The religiosity of such a person lies in the fact that he has no doubts about the significance and greatness of these superpersonal goals, which cannot be rationally justified, but do not need it ... In this sense, religion is the ancient desire of mankind to clearly and fully realize these values and goals and strengthen and expand their influence.
He goes on to make some connection between science and religion, and says that “science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the desire for truth and understanding. But the source of this feeling comes from the realm of religion. From there - the belief in the possibility that the rules of this world are rational, that is, comprehensible to the mind. I can't imagine a real scientist without a strong belief in this. Figuratively, the situation can be described as follows: science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind.” The phrase "science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind" is often quoted out of context, depriving it of meaning.
Einstein then writes again that he does not believe in a personified God and states:
There is neither the dominance of man nor the domination of a deity as independent causes of natural phenomena. Of course, the doctrine of God as a person intervening in natural phenomena, can never be literally refuted by science, for this doctrine can always find refuge in those areas where scientific knowledge is not yet able to penetrate. But I am convinced that such behavior of some representatives of religion is not only unworthy, but also fatal.
In 1950, in a letter to M. Berkowitz, Einstein wrote: “In relation to God, I am an agnostic. I am convinced that for a clear understanding of the paramount importance of moral principles in the improvement and ennobling of life, the concept of a legislator is not required, especially a legislator working on the principle of reward and punishment.
In recent years
Once again, Einstein described his religious views, responding to those who attributed to him a belief in a Judeo-Christian God:
What you read about my religious beliefs is, of course, a lie. Lies that are systematically repeated. I do not believe in God as a person and have never hidden it, but expressed it very clearly. If there is anything in me that can be called religious, then it is undoubtedly an unbounded admiration for the structure of the universe to the extent that science reveals it.
In 1954, a year and a half before his death, Einstein, in a letter to the German philosopher Eric Gutkind, described his attitude to religion as follows:
“The word 'God' to me is just a manifestation and product of human weaknesses, and the Bible is a collection of venerable, but still primitive legends, which, nevertheless, are rather childish. No, even the most sophisticated, interpretation can change this (for me).
Original text (English)
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are consequently pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.
The most comprehensive review of Einstein's religious views was published by his friend, Max Jammer, in the book Einstein and Religion (1999). However, he admits that the book is based not on his direct conversations with Einstein, but on the study of archival materials. Jammer considers Einstein a deeply religious person, calls his views a "cosmic religion" and believes that Einstein did not identify God with Nature, like Spinoza, but considered him to be a separate non-personal entity, manifesting itself in the laws of the Universe as a "spirit far superior to human", according to Einstein himself
At the same time, Leopold Infeld, Einstein's closest student, wrote that “when Einstein speaks of God, he always has in mind the internal connection and logical simplicity of the laws of nature. I would call it a 'materialistic approach to God'"
Albert Einstein is one of the greatest scientists whose discoveries go beyond classical physics. To this day, his views and beliefs remain authoritative and inspire millions of people around the world.
63 years after his death, disputes about the life of this man, his attitude to people, science, the Universe, God, and religion do not subside. These disputes often turn into myths, as a result of which the thoughts of a genius are misinterpreted and even misquoted.
Based on Einstein's statements, let's try to understand one of the many aspects of his life - the spiritual. What great physicist thought about the Universe, God, science and religion?
"God does not play dice"
Surely on the Internet you have often met Einstein's quote: "God does not play dice." This is one of his most famous statements, and almost constantly this phrase is taken out of context. People usually see it as a confirmation of religious belief, as if Einstein recognized that God exists and even believes in him. But in fact, the meaning of this expression was completely different.
The quote was "pulled out" from Einstein's angry letter addressed to one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, physicist Max Born. Full offer sounds like this:
Quantum theory explains a lot, but in fact it does not bring us one step closer to the secrets of the Old Man, in any case, I am convinced that He does not play dice
With these words, Albert Einstein wanted to challenge his fellow physicists who were developing a new theory - quantum mechanics (QM).
Einstein's disagreements with quantum mechanics are well known. His own General theory relativity describes the universe in a completely different way, and to agree with the new theory would mean for the physicist to betray his own.
Photo: F. Schmutzer / Photo by Albert Einstein in color
The cornerstone of QM is the so-called Heisenberg uncertainty principle. It states that one cannot know both the position and momentum of a particle at the same time, i.e. the more we know about one particular property, the less about the other (it will behave randomly). From this principle follows what shocked Einstein, and with which he could not agree - any event in quantum world truly random. The scientist believed that this consideration introduces nonsense into the microcosm.
The physicist strove for more simple explanation peace. By the expression “God does not play dice”, Einstein did not mean a specific belief in the Almighty, it is just a convenient metaphorical construction, denoting that there is nothing accidental in the world, everything is natural and should go on as usual.
He argued that describing the motion of electrons in terms of their velocities and coordinates contradicts the uncertainty principle. And he said that there must be a fundamental physical factor, with the help of which the quantum-mechanical picture of the microcosm will return to the path of determinism (the doctrine of the regularity and causality of all events and phenomena).
Today we begin to understand how quantum mechanics(transistors, magnetic resonance tomographs work on its basis, nuclear energy). But the deeper we penetrate into it, the more we become convinced that we are going beyond the framework of classical physics. Perhaps Einstein was right about the fundamental physical factor, and in the Universe there really can exist Main Law which scientists have not yet discovered. In his letter to Born, Einstein wrote:
You believe in a god who plays dice. And I - in absolute law and order in an objectively existing world
What did Einstein believe?
There is that when Einstein developed his Theory of Relativity, the equation he derived indicated that the Universe is expanding, it has a beginning. He did not like this idea, as it suggested that God could have had a hand in creating space, so in his work the scientist introduced a “cosmological constant” to try to get rid of the “beginning”.
Others argue that Einstein introduced the “cosmological constant” into the equation for only one purpose: to not stand out from the background of other scientists who supported the generally accepted theory at that time. stationary universe. Thus the physicist simply adjusted his theory to what was then considered scientific truth.
However, after 4 years, when a decent amount of knowledge was accumulated and enough evidence was collected about the "beginning", he reported that the introduction of this constant - worst mistake throughout his life.
Photo: NASA / Albert Einstein, like Spinoza, believed that God is the One Law of Physics, which creates harmony in the Universe
The evidence was obtained in California by Edwin Hubble, who confirmed that the universe is expanding, and that at some point in history this expansion had a beginning. Albert Einstein once said:
Watching the harmony of the cosmos, I am with my limited human mind able to admit that there are still people who say there is no god. But what really angers me is that they support such a statement with my quote
But here too we are talking not about a personal god interacting with man through religious rites, but rather about a certain order, a single beautiful law that governs the universe. Einstein was not an atheist, but rather an agnostic who accepted the god of Spinoza (a Dutch philosopher of the 17th century), a god who manifests himself in the natural harmony of being. In 1931, in his book The World as I See It, Einstein wrote:
I cannot imagine a god that rewards and punishes the creatures he has created, or has a will akin to ours. In the same way, I cannot and do not want to imagine someone who would survive after his own physical death. Let faint-hearted people - out of fear or out of absurd selfishness - cherish such thoughts. Let the mystery of the eternity of life remain unsolved - it is enough for me to contemplate the wonderful structure existing world and strive to understand at least a tiny particle of the Basic Cause that manifests itself in nature
To finally be convinced that Einstein never believed in a Christian, Jewish or any other god, it is enough to look at the scientist's autobiographical notes. In them, he says that he abandoned religious beliefs as a child.
I - although I was the child of non-religious parents - was deeply religious until the age of 12. However, later, thanks to reading popular science books, I became convinced that much in bible stories can't be true, and my faith in God has come to an end
Is science a religion?
For Einstein, science occupied a significant place in his spiritual life, he tried to spiritualize it, because he believed that it was scientific knowledge that was the language that would allow us to better feel the Universe.
“Although our minds are not yet able to fully understand all the wonders of the world around us, trying to do this brings us closer to God, and the more we learn about the universe, the closer we become to it”, the scientist thought.
We see that the Universe is organized in a wonderful way and obeys certain laws, but these laws themselves remain vague for us. Behind them there is some power unknown to us. I largely agree with Spinoza's pantheism, but most of all I respect him for his contribution to the development of modern philosophy, for the fact that he considered the soul and body as something one, and not as two different entities
In 1930, Einstein published one of the most discussed essays of the time. In the magazine The New York Times, he spoke about his cosmic religiosity. In particular, he said that the concepts of hell and heaven are alien to him, and shared his thoughts on the relationship between religion and science.
The scientist claimed that “Despite the fact that the spheres of religion and science are in themselves clearly distinguishable from each other, there is a relationship between them. In my understanding, there can be no conflict between them. Although they are different from each other, sometimes they are still intertwined in this world”.
A religiously enlightened person is one who, to the greatest extent possible for him, has freed himself from the fetters of egoistic desires and is absorbed in thoughts, feelings and aspirations, which he holds due to their superpersonal character ... regardless of whether an attempt is made to connect it with a divine being, for otherwise it would not be possible to consider Buddha or Spinoza as religious figures. The religiosity of such a person lies in the fact that he has no doubts about the significance and greatness of these superpersonal goals, which cannot be rationally justified, but do not need it ... In this sense, religion is the ancient desire of mankind to clearly and fully realize these values and goals and strengthen and expand their influence. If we accept these definitions of science and religion, then the conflict between them looks impossible. This is so because science can say "what is" and not "how it should be"
Albert Einstein was a complex person with specific views on life that are not always easy to understand. However, to say that he followed Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion is wrong. He constantly said that he did not identify himself with any religious movement. The scientist saw the laws of the Universe, which give it not only beauty, but also harmony, and believed that this is the manifestation of God.
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excerpt from the book
Einstein God
Religion and free will in the uncertain
world of quantum mechanics.
Religiosity and the scientific method may seem incompatible only at first glance. Throughout his life, the scientist, whose revolutionary discoveries in the field of physics determined the subsequent history of mankind, tried to explain his understanding of God - as higher mind that reveals itself in an incomprehensible universe and inspires all true art and science. T&P publishes a chapter from Walter Isaacson's book on Albert Einstein, forthcoming from Corpus.
One evening in Berlin, at a dinner party attended by Einstein and his wife, one of the guests declared that he believed in astrology. Einstein ridiculed him, calling such a statement pure water superstition. Another guest entered the conversation and made equally dismissive remarks about religion. Belief in God, he insisted, is also superstition.
The owner tried to stop him, noting that even Einstein believed in God.
"It can't be," the skeptical guest remarked, turning to Einstein to find out if he was truly religious.
“Yes, you can call it that,” Einstein replied calmly. - Try it out using our limited opportunities, understand the secrets of nature, and discover that behind all discernible laws and relationships, there remains something elusive, intangible and incomprehensible. Honoring the power behind what we can comprehend is my religion. In that sense, I'm really religious."
Einstein the boy believed enthusiastically, but then passed the transitional age, and he rebelled against religion. For the next thirty years, he tried to speak less on this subject. But closer to fifty, in articles, interviews and letters, Einstein began to formulate more clearly that he was increasingly aware of his belonging to Jewish people and, moreover, to talk about their faith and their ideas about God, albeit rather impersonal and deistic.
Probably, in addition to the natural inclination of a person approaching fifty years old, to reflect on the eternal, there were other reasons for this. Because of the continued oppression of the Jews, Einstein developed a sense of kinship with his fellow Jews, which, in turn, reawakened his religious feelings to some extent. But chiefly this belief seemed to be the result of a reverent awe and a sense of the transcendent order that was revealed through the pursuit of science.
And captured by the beauty of equations gravitational field, and denying the uncertainty of quantum mechanics, Einstein had an unshakable faith in the orderliness of the universe. This was the basis not only of his scientific, but also of his religious outlook. “The scientist feels the greatest satisfaction,” he wrote in 1929, realizing “that the Lord God himself could not make these ratios different from what they are, and moreover, it was not in His power to make it so that four was not the most important number."
For Einstein, as for most people, belief in something greater than yourself became a feeling of paramount importance. She engendered in him a certain mixture of conviction and humility, mixed with simplicity. With a tendency to focus on oneself, such grace can only be welcomed. His ability to joke and introspection helped him avoid pretentiousness and pomposity that could amaze even the most famous mind in the world.
“Everyone seriously engaged in science comes to the conclusion that the laws of the Universe manifest a spiritual principle that incommensurably exceeds the spiritual capabilities of man”
Einstein's religious sense of reverence and simplicity also manifested itself in the need for social justice. Even signs of hierarchy or class differences disgusted him, which prompted him to beware of excess, not to be too practical, to help the refugees and the oppressed.
Shortly after his fiftieth birthday, Einstein gave a startling interview in which he spoke more frankly than ever about his religious beliefs. He spoke to a pompous but charming poet and propagandist named George Sylvester Viereck. Virek was born in Germany, went to America as a child, as an adult, wrote tasteless erotic poems, interviewed great people and talked about his polysyllabic love for his homeland.
In his piggy bank he collected so different people, like Freud, Hitler and the Kaiser, and over time, from interviews with them, compiled a book called Glimpses of the Great (“Short Encounters with the Greats”). He managed to get a meeting with Einstein. Their conversation took place in his Berlin apartment. Elsa served raspberry juice and fruit salad, and then they went upstairs to Einstein's office, where no one could disturb them. It is not entirely clear why Einstein decided that Virek was Jewish. In fact, Virek proudly traced his lineage to the Kaiser family, later became a Nazi fan, and was imprisoned in America during World War II as a German agitator.
Vierek first asked Einstein if he considered himself a Jew or a German. “You can be both,” Einstein replied. “Nationalism is a childhood disease, the measles of humanity.”
"Should Jews assimilate?" “In order to adapt, we Jews were too willing to sacrifice our individuality.”
“To what extent have you been influenced by Christianity?” “As a child, I was taught both the Bible and the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am captivated by the luminous personality of the Nazarene."
"Do you think Jesus is a historical figure?" - "Undoubtedly! One cannot read the Gospel and not feel the real presence of Jesus. His individuality is heard in every word. There are no other myths so full of life."
"Do you believe in God?" - “I'm not an atheist. This problem is too vast for our limited mind. We are in the position of a child walking into a huge library full of books in different languages. The child knows that someone had to write these books. But he doesn't know how he did it. He does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child vaguely suspects that there is some mystical order in the arrangement of books, but does not know what. Thus, it seems to me, even the most smart people. We see a surprisingly arranged Universe that obeys certain laws, but we only vaguely understand what these laws are.
"Is this the Jewish idea of God?" “I am a determinist. I don't believe in free will. Jews believe in free will. They believe that a person is the creator of his own life. I reject this doctrine. For that matter, I'm not a Jew."
"Is this Spinoza's God?" - “I admire Spinoza's pantheism, but even more I appreciate his contribution to modern process knowledge, since this is the first philosopher who considered the soul and body as a whole, and not as two separate entities.
Where did his ideas come from? "I'm in sufficient I am a master of my craft and I can freely dispose of my imagination. Imagination more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination marks the limits of the world."
"Do you believe in immortality?" - "Not. One life is enough for me."
Einstein tried to express himself clearly. This was necessary both for him and for all those who wanted from him to receive a simple answer to the question about his faith. Therefore, in the summer of 1930, during a holiday in Kaputta, sailing, he pondered this question that worried him and formulated his creed in the article “What I Believe.” At the end of it, he explained what he meant when he said that he was religious:
The most beautiful emotion that we are given to experience is the feeling of mystery. It is the fundamental emotion at the origin of all true art and science. The one to whom this emotion is unfamiliar, who can no longer be surprised, frozen in delight, and feel awe, is like dead, he is an extinguished candle. To feel that behind everything that is given to us in sensations, there is something that is not accessible to our understanding, whose beauty and majesty we realize only indirectly - this is what it means to be religious. In this sense, and only in this sense, I am a truly religious person.
Many found that this text makes you think, even calls to faith. AT different translations it has been reprinted many times. But it is not surprising that he did not satisfy those who wanted a simple, direct answer to the question of whether Einstein believed in God. Now the attempts to get Einstein to explain what he believes in a succinct way have replaced the previous frantic drive to get a one-sentence explanation of relativity.
A Colorado banker wrote that he had already received from twenty-four laureates Nobel Prize when asked if they believe in God and asked Einstein to join them. “I cannot conceive of a personal God directly influencing the behavior individual person or judging his own creations,” Einstein wrote in illegible handwriting on the letter. - My religiosity consists in humble admiration for the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend in the world accessible to our knowledge. This deeply emotional belief in the existence of a higher intelligence, which reveals itself in an incomprehensible universe, is my idea of God.
A teenage sixth-grade Sunday school girl in New York posed the same question in a slightly different way. "Do scientists pray?" she asked. Einstein took it seriously. "Based on scientific research there is an assumption that everything that happens is determined by the laws of nature, the same is true in relation to the actions of people, he explained. “So it’s hard to believe that a scientist would be inclined to believe that events can be influenced by prayer, that is, a wish addressed to a supernatural being.”
However, this does not mean that the Almighty does not exist, there is no spiritual principle superior to us. And Einstein continues to explain to the girl:
Everyone seriously engaged in science comes to the conclusion that the laws of the Universe manifest a spiritual principle that incommensurably exceeds the spiritual capabilities of man. In the face of this spirit, we, with our modest powers, must feel humble. Thus, the pursuit of science leads to the emergence of a special religious feeling, which in fact differs significantly from the more naive religiosity of other people.
Those who understood by religiosity only belief in a personal God who controls our everyday life, believed that Einstein's idea of an impersonal cosmic spiritual principle, like his theory of relativity, should be called by its true name. “I have serious doubts that Einstein himself really understands what he is getting at,” said the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal William Henry O "Connell. But one thing was obvious to him - this is godlessness. "The result of these searches and vague conclusions about time and space is a mask under which hides the terrifying specter of atheism.
The cardinal's public denunciation prompted the well-known head of the New York Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, to send a telegram to Einstein, asking bluntly, “Do you believe in God? End. Answer paid. 50 words. Einstein used only about half of the words given to him. This text is the most famous version of the answer to the question that he was so often asked: "I believe in Spinoza's God, who manifests himself in everything that exists, subject to the laws of harmony, but not in God, busy with the fate and affairs of mankind."
And this answer of Einstein did not satisfy everyone. For example, some religious Jews noted that for these beliefs, Spinoza was expelled from the Jewish community of Amsterdam, moreover, Catholic Church condemned him too. “Cardinal O'Connell would have done the right thing if he hadn't attacked Einstein's theory,” said one rabbi from the Bronx. their jurisdiction."
Nevertheless, Einstein's answer satisfied most people, whether they agreed with him or not, because they were able to appreciate what was said. The idea of an impersonal God who does not interfere in the daily life of people, whose hand is felt in the grandeur of the cosmos - component philosophical tradition accepted both in Europe and in America. This idea can be found in Einstein's favorite philosophers, and in general it is consistent with the religious ideas of the founding fathers of the American state, such as Jefferson and Franklin.
Some religious people did not recognize Einstein's right to often use the word "God" simply as a figure of speech. The same was true of some non-believers. He called Him, sometimes quite jokingly, in different ways. He could say both der Herrgott (Lord God) and der Alte (Old Man). But it was not in Einstein's nature to dodge, adjusting to someone's tastes. In fact, everything was quite the opposite. So let's give him his due and take his word for it when he insists, repeating over and over again, that these words are not mere semantic camouflage and that he is not really an atheist.
Throughout his life, Einstein consistently denied the accusation of atheism. “There are people who say there is no God,” he told a friend. “But what really annoys me is the references to me to substantiate such views.”
Unlike Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell or George Bernard Shaw, Einstein never felt the need to denigrate those who believe in God. Rather, he did not encourage atheists. “I am separated from most of the so-called atheists by a feeling of complete humility before the secrets of the harmony of the cosmos that are inaccessible to us,” he explained.
"People, vegetables or space dust, we all dance to an incomprehensible melody played from afar by an invisible musician"
In fact, Einstein was more critical not of religious people, but of detractors of religion who did not suffer from an excess of humility and a sense of awe. “Atheist fanatics,” he explained in one of his letters, “are like slaves, still feeling the weight of the chains thrown off after a hard struggle. The music of the spheres is inaccessible to these creatures who call traditional religion the opiate of the people.”
Einstein would later discuss the same topic with a US Navy lieutenant whom he had never met. Is it true, the sailor asked, that a Jesuit priest converted you to a believer? This is absurd, Einstein replied. He went on to point out that he considers belief in a God acting like a father to be the result of "childish analogies". Would Einstein, the sailor asked, allow his response to be quoted in an argument with more religious shipmates? Einstein warned not to oversimplify everything. “You can call me an agnostic, but I do not share the militant fervor of professional atheists, whose zeal is mainly due to liberation from the fetters of religious education received in childhood,” he explained. “I prefer a restraint that suits our weak intellect, unable to understand nature, to explain our own existence.”
In Santa Barbara, 1933
How did such an instinctive-religious feeling correlate with science? For Einstein, the advantage of his faith was precisely that it guided and inspired him rather than conflicted with scientific work. “Religious cosmic feeling,” he said, “is the most significant and noble motive for scientific work».
Einstein later explained his understanding of the relationship between science and religion at a conference at the New York United Theological Seminary on the subject. It is within the realm of science, he said, to find out what is the case, but not to assess what one thinks about how it should be. Religion has a completely different purpose. But sometimes their efforts add up. “Science can only be created by those who are overwhelmed by the desire for truth and understanding,” he said. “However, it is religion that is the source of this feeling.”
The speech was covered in the newspapers as main news, and her laconic conclusion became famous: "This situation can be portrayed as follows: science without religion is crippled, religion without science is blind."
But with one religious concept, Einstein continued to insist, science cannot agree. We are talking about a deity who, at his whim, can interfere in the course of events in the world he created and in the life of his creatures. "To date main source The conflict between religion and science is connected with the idea of a personal God," he argued. The goal of scientists is to discover the immutable laws that govern reality, and in doing so, they must discard the notion that the sacred will or, for that matter, the will of man, can lead to the violation of this universal principle of causality.
Belief in causal determinism, being an integral part of Einstein's scientific worldview, came into conflict not only with the idea of a personal God. It was, at least according to Einstein, incompatible with the notion of human free will. Although he was deep a moral person, belief in strict determinism made it difficult for him to perceive such concepts as moral choice and individual responsibility, which are the basis of most ethical systems.
As a rule, both Jewish and Christian theologians believe that humans are granted free will and that they are responsible for their actions. They are so free that they can even, as the Bible says, skimp on the instructions of the Lord, although this seems to be contrary to the belief in an omnipotent and omniscient God.
I don't believe in free will at all. philosophical sense. Each of us acts not only under the influence of external causes, but also in accordance with internal needs. Schopenhauer's saying: "A man can do as he wishes, but cannot wish as he pleases," has inspired me since my youth; it has constantly served as a consolation to me in the face of life's difficulties, my own and others, and an inexhaustible source of tolerance.
Believe me, Einstein was once asked if people are free in their actions. "No, I'm a determinist," he replied. “Everything, the beginning as much as the end, is determined by forces we cannot control. Everything is predetermined for both the insect and the star. People, vegetables or space dust, we all dance to an incomprehensible melody played from afar by an invisible musician.
These views confused some of his friends. For example, Max Born believed that they completely undermine the foundations of human morality. “I can’t understand how you combine a fully mechanistic universe and freedom into one whole. moral person he wrote to Einstein. - A completely deterministic world disgusts me. Maybe you are right and the world is exactly as you say. But in this moment it seems that even in physics this is not the case, not to mention the rest of the world.
For Born, the uncertainty of quantum mechanics allowed this dilemma to be resolved. Like some other philosophers of the time, he seized on the uncertainty inherent in quantum mechanics as an opportunity to get rid of "the contradiction between moral freedom and the strict laws of nature." Einstein, acknowledging that quantum mechanics questions strict determinism, replied to Born that he still believed in it, both in relation to human behavior and in the field of physics.
Born explained the essence of the disagreement to his rather nervous wife Hedwig, who was always ready to argue with Einstein. This time, she said that, like Einstein, she “cannot believe in a God playing dice,” in other words, unlike her husband, she rejected the quantum mechanical view of the universe based on uncertainty and probability. But, she added, "I also can't believe that you, as Max told me, believe that your absolute rule of law means everything is predetermined, like whether I'm going to get my child vaccinated." This would mean, she pointed out, the end of all morality.
On the ocean, in Santa Barbara, 1933
In Einstein's philosophy, the way out of this predicament was as follows. Free will should be seen as something useful, even necessary, for a civilized society, since that is what makes people take responsibility for their actions. When a person acts as if he were responsible for his actions, both from the point of view of psychology and in practice, it encourages him to behave more responsibly. “I am forced to act as if free will exists,” he explained, “because if I want to live in a civilized society, I must act responsibly.” He was even willing to hold people accountable for everything good or bad they did, as it was both a pragmatic and rational approach to life, while still believing that everyone's actions were predetermined. “I know that from the point of view of the philosopher, the murderer is not responsible for his crime,” he said, “but I prefer not to drink tea with him.”
In justifying Einstein, as well as Max and Hedwig Born, it should be noted that for centuries philosophers have tried, sometimes not too cleverly or very successfully, to reconcile free will with determinism and an omniscient God. Whether or not Einstein knew more than the others that would have enabled him to cut this Gordian knot, one thing is certain: he was able to formulate and put into practice strict principles of personal morality. This is true at least when it comes to the whole of humanity, but not always when it comes to members of his family. And philosophizing about these insoluble questions did not hinder him. “The most important aspiration of a man is the struggle for the morality of his behavior,” he wrote to a Brooklyn minister. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only the morality of our actions can provide life with beauty and dignity.
If you want to live for the benefit of mankind, Einstein believed, the foundations of morality must be more important to you than "exclusively personal." At times, he was cruel to those closest to him, which only means: like all of us, people, he was not without sin. However, more often than most other people, he sincerely, and sometimes it required courage, tried to promote progress and protect the freedom of the individual, believing that this was more important than his own, selfish desires. In general, he was cordial, kind, noble and modest. When he and Elsa left Japan in 1922, he gave her daughters advice on how to live morally. “Be content with little for yourself,” he said, “and give others a lot.”
