By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
Einsteinian religion is a kind of spirituality which is nonsupernatural. . . . And that doesn't mean that it's somehow less than supernatural religion. Quite the contrary. . . . Einstein was adamant in rejecting all ideas of a personal god. It is something bigger, something grander, something that I believe any scientist can subscribe to, including those scientists whom I would call atheists. Einstein, in my terms, was an atheist, although Einstein of course was very fond of using the word God. When Einstein would use the word God, he was using it as a kind of figure of speech. When he said things like, "God is subtle but he's not malicious," or "He does not play dice," or "Did God have choice in creating the universe?" what he means was things like randomness do not lie at the heart of all things. Could the universe have been any other way than the way it is? Einstein chose to use the word God to phrase such profound, deep questions. That, it seems to me, is the good part of religion which we can subscribe to.
Quote from Richard Dawkins, Discovery, September 2005, pp. 54-55
Overview
Content Tools