Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist widely known for his theory of relativity. His ideas considerably changed physics and our understanding of gravity, space, time, and the universe.
Besides science, today, people mostly use Einstein’s quotes to make political or religious statements. For decades, atheists and religious people have used his quotes to get their points across. But was Albert Einstein an atheist? And if not, what was Einstein’s religion?
The German-born physicist talked a lot about God. During his lifetime, people often asked him if he believed in God. He usually answered: “I believe in Spinoza’s God — who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.”
So before understanding Einstein’s beliefs, we must briefly look at Spinoza’s philosophy. Who is this God of Spinoza that Einstein invoked so much?
The God of Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza, also called the God-intoxicated man, was a controversial 17th-century philosopher born in Amsterdam. At the time (the mid-1650s), his views were so unorthodox that he was expelled from Amsterdam’s Sephardic synagogue.
In Spinoza’s philosophy, God was not a personal agent who created the universe or interfered with human deeds. He believed God could not be separated from the universe — they are the same. For him, everything in the universe manifests as God; there is nothing outside God (pantheism).
Spinoza’s God doesn’t have the providential attributes of the traditional God of Abrahamic religions. His God doesn’t make plans, give commands, have expectations, or make judgments. Therefore, Spinoza didn’t believe in heaven or hell.
During his lifetime, Spinoza was labeled a heretic and sometimes an atheist. So was Einstein an atheist for believing in the God of Spinoza?
Was Einstein an atheist?
Einstein also didn’t believe in the traditional God of the Abrahamic religions. Like Spinoza, he couldn’t conceive of a God who would create people, give them free will, then punish or reward them later. Because of these arguments, some atheists have tried to imply that he was an atheist.
But Einstein often said he was not an atheist, and he didn’t like being labeled as one. When told about atheists using his name in their arguments, he said: “But what makes me angry is that they quote me for supporting such views.”
At another point, he also said: “There are fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics.”
What did Einstein think about science and religion?
Einstein believed that speculations and discoveries in science came from a “deep religious feeling.” However, his was an “unorthodox religiosity.” One of his most famous quotes was: “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
He means that science is a means to know the facts, but it’s always guided by something beyond science. According to him, there is a relationship between science and religion, but they clash when people try to overlap them. He said religion should determine “what should be” and let science determine “what is.”
Also, Einstein called himself “devoutly religious.” He saw the beauty in the precise nature of physical laws and how they could be glanced at and grasped from a mathematical point of view. He often said he believed in Spinoza’s God because he did not believe in a God who superseded physical laws or interfered with human affairs. So to him, there is no sin, afterlife, hell, or judgment.
“My views are near those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order which we can grasp humbly and imperfectly. We must content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem — the most important of all human problems.”
Einstein’s answer to morality
In Einstein’s “religion,” no deity judges human morality (or lack thereof). So how do people uphold human values if there is no judgment?
He believed religious leaders could adopt “the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself.” On another occasion, he said: “My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance — but for us, not for God.”
Ultimately, we should look beyond Einstein’s “religion” and see his message. He believed everybody should treat others the way they wanted to be treated. He says you should be moral not because you fear God’s wrath, but because you want to do it from your heart.
“If people are good only because they fear punishment or hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”
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