Guy Blanchet wrote:
>
> George Murphy a écrit:
>
> > Wendee Holtcamp wrote:
> > >
> > > Does anyone know whether Albert Einstein was a Christian?
> > >
> > > I have seen many quotes of his professing faith in God, but am not sure if he considered himself Christian and have been unable to find this info.
> >
> > No, he was not. He was a Jew who respected the Jewish tradition & Jesus, but he
> > did not believe in a personal God. He was a pantheist who identified his beliefs in
> > many ways with Spinoza, who though that speaking of "God" was simply another way of
> > speaking of the totality of nature (_deus sive natura_). The place to look for more on
> > this would be Max Jammer's _Einstein and Religion_, published last year by Princeton
> > U.P. My review of this was published in the January-February 2000 _American Scientist_,
> > p.90.
> > Shalom,
> > George
> >
> > George L. Murphy
> > gmurphy@raex.com
> > http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
>
> Reading your comment on Einstein's religious faith being pantheistic raised a question in my mind. Over a fifteen years ago I was plowing my way
> through a book written by himself on Relativity, and in one particular place he referred to God as "The Old One" and the context in which it appeared
> made me stop and think hard. I was not a Christian at the time. I had never before heard such a deep personnal sounding referrence to God. For me
> that was a milestone that ushered the long chain of events that led me to become a converted Christian a few years later. The question this raises is:
> would pantheism permit a person to speak about God as a Person having a character of His own?
It's true that some of Einstein's phrases such as "the Old One" (_der Alte_) and
"the Lord God" who "is subtle but not malicious" suggest a personal God and it's
possible that Einstein had more inclination in that direction than he himself realized.
After all, he said that he had very orthodox Jewish beliefs in his youth until he
realized some of the problems science raised for them and then went through "a positive
orgy of freethinking", & such beliefs often leave some residue even when they are
rejected intellectually. But we ought to respect Einstein's (& anyone else's)
statements about what they believe, & Einstein is very clear about rejecting belief in a
personal God, free will, afterlife &c & about his admiration for Spinoza and his
pantheism.
If I remember correctly the use of the phrase "the Old One" was in a letter in
which he said he wasn't sure that quantum theory "brings us any closer to the secret of
the Old One." I don't think his meaning would be changed at all if we said "closer to
the secret of the universe."
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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