Einstein versus organized religion. What do you think?

Question

Organized religion:
Belief in a personal God based upon religious doctrine
Blind faith is required for the acceptance of a belief for which there is no evidence. No rational grounds, whatsoever, just faith only.
Belief in a God not based upon religious doctrine.
This is the God that Einstein believed in. A non personal God experienced by a cosmic religious feeling.
The rational grounds of believe would be of the complexity, beauty, and mystery of the universe, which has benevolent intellectual purpose, and is not just a chaotic accident

Answer 1

Two common lies Christians spout are "Einstein was religious" and "Thomas Jefferson was a Christian". Truth is Einstein did not believe in immortal soul, a personal God, and was exactly as religious and in perfect agreement with someone like Carl Sagan who was clearly an atheist. Thomas Jefferson appreciated Jesus' moral teachings but did not believe that Jesus was the son of god and that Christ died for our sins on the cross. If you still want to call Jefferson a Christian, and if you still want to call Einstein "religious", feel free as long as you realize that you are completely fooling yourself and misleading others.

Answer 2

I liked Leviathan's answer. Einstein was smart, but that doesn't make him right about everything. When people are famous for their intelligence, we tend to elevate them to a near-infallible state, quoting them as though nothing that ever came out of their mouths was wrong.



I disagree that the universe must have a "benevolent intellectual purpose", that it can't be a "chaotic accident". Though, in my opinion, true chaos does not exist. Causality and the laws of the universe tend to produce calculable results. But this doesn't mean there was any kind of conscious design involved. We can't say that it was designed, because we have no standard to compare it to. Yes, it is rather orderly, but that does nothing to support the notion of intelligent design. Only the notion that two similar objects will behave similarly (go figure!). We've got nothing to compare it to, and we lack the knowledge and perspective to claim that the universe or anything in it (besides the creations of living beings here on Earth) must have had conscious effort behind it, or that it couldn't have.



Looking at the universe, if you want to see design, you will, and if you want to see chaos, you will.

Answer 3

Einstein had a few good years, then became irrelevent in physics. He never accepted quantum mechanics, saying "God doesn't play dice with the universe", which of course is not correct. Perhaps it was his "spirtualism" that got in the way of correct thinking and ruined Einstein's ablity to progress in physics.



Had he been thinking correctly, he would have said "ok, suppose god does play dice with the universe", instead of keeping faith when evidence pointed elsewhere.

Answer 4

Einstein was just a man. I love this theories, general relativity is a superb theory but why does his name keep being brought up?



He's not an authority. Scientists (like Einstein) aren't interested from argument from authority, that's just not good enough. We like proof.



Einstein was way off in terms of quantum mechanics wasn't he? Some atheists claim he was one of them, christians claim he was one of them (even less likely since he was jewish by descent) - none of it holds up. He was a deist. Good for him.



Let him rest. Besides, many prominent physicists today are asian - will people embrace Buddhism if the next big revolution in science comes from some chinese guy? I don't see why.

Answer 5

Einstein laughed at both the logical fallacies of most religions, and the moral shortcomings that most seem to be blind to. The only organized religion he ever expressed praise for in his writings was Buddhism.

Answer 6

Not bad for Einstein!



That's Faith:

Answer 7

Either your question is messed up, or my head is.

"Belief in a personal God based upon religious doctrine "

"Belief in a God not based upon religious doctrine."

Do I smell weed?

Answer 8

As a theologian, Einstein was a wonderful physicist.

Answer 9

Spinoza's God wins.

Answer 10

Religion is destructive. Science is constructive.