Reconsidering Einstein

By Jeff Long

I am a not an atheist. I am a deeply religious nonbeliever. -- Albert Einstein

Much of what is generally known of Einstein, arguably western civilization's greatest genius, is that he had a shock of unruly, white hair and is responsible for science's most fascinating equation: e=mc squared. Respect for the scientist's mind was such that in 1955, at his death at age 76, the pathologist removed Einstein's brain at the autopsy and kept it for over 40 years. The reuniting of the remains of Einstein with his California granddaughter after a cross-country road trip is the subject of a 2001 book, "Driving Mr. Albert." I look forward to reading it this summer.

What is generally not known is that the German-born theoretical physicist also had a well-thought out belief in God, or, as he put it, in "Spinoza's God." Without squandering too much of the printer's ink, Spinoza -- a 17th century Dutch philosopher -- argued that God exists but is abstract and impersonal. God and nature, for Spinoza, as for Einstein, are the same reality -- which is an idea known by a single word: pantheism.

Reading Spinoza, my mind hearkens back to a single scene in the 1993 movie, "Rudy," in which Rudy Ruettiger, the diminutive athlete struggling to make the Notre Dame football team, is told by a priest: "I know two things after 35 years of theological reflection: there is a God, and I'm not Him." A pantheist would beg to argue with that cleric, I'm afraid.

By the age of 23, Spinoza was effectively shunned by Jewish society and by his own family. Later his works were deemed forbidden by the Vatican. Often called an atheist, nowhere in his writings does Spinoza deny God's existence. The same conclusion must be drawn in examining Einstein's written works.

We know a lot more about Albert Einstein today thanks to the unsealing of 3,500 personal letters penned by the 1921 Nobel Prize winner. Asked repeatedly by the media to explain his religious beliefs, he wrote a tract entitled, "What I Believe," in 1930 -- shortly before settling in the United States for good.

The reader may wonder why a teacher of the Judeo-Christian Bible and a retired pastor is bothering to write about Einstein, whose religious understanding is far removed from the teachings of any church. Partly to set the record straight; as indicated before, the inventor of the theory of relativity was not an atheist. Also, though, it's important to realize Einstein's belief system -- which differs from my own -- is well-reasoned and deeply-felt.

Einstein called himself a determinist, in part meaning he did not think God interfered in the lives of people. Intercessory prayer, for him, was nonsense and espoused by the naive. He's entitled to his opinion and given Einstein's enormous intellect, the great man's thoughts are respected in disagreement.

Here's a snapshot: Einstein did not believe in miracles. Before you rush to throw out this section of the newspaper or close the page online you're reading, hold on, please. For the scientist, who taught for more than two decades at Princeton, it was the absence of miracles that reflected divine providence. The fact, he wrote in his personal letters and preserved by biographer Walter Isaacson, that the cosmos is comprehensible, that it follows laws, is worthy of awe. This, Einstein further posits, is the defining quality of a God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists. This "feeling of reverence, this cosmic religion ... is the wellspring of all true art and science."

I encourage the reader of this column to take time this summer for some truly worthwhile reading. Read ideas from someone whose thoughts are challenging to you, that you find hard to absorb, that perhaps may offend you at first glance.

In the thousands of personal letters from Einstein, still being examined by historians, we read this: "When I am judging a theory, I ask myself whether, if I were God, I would have arranged the world in such a way." Does that sound like an atheist to you?

Isaacson closes his masterful biography of Einstein (1879-1955) with these words, which also bring this column to conclusion:

"[Einstein] was a rebel, a nonconformist, who was nonetheless, suffused with reverence. And thus it was that an imaginative, impertinent Swiss patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos ... the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe."

Read something challenging -- and soon.

Rev. Jeff Long, D.Min., teaches the Bible at SEMO, advocates for Habitat for Humanity, and is a retired pastor. He and his wife live in Jackson.