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Einstein's God: Albert Einstein's Quest As a Scientist and As a Jew to Replace a Forsaken God

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Albert Einstein has become almost a symbol for the concept of human intelligence. But what I admire most about Einstein wasn't so much his intelligence but his wisdom. In Einstein's God, Robert Goldman displays that wisdom in a manner that those of us of lesser intelligence can understand.

Einstein's God is nothing less than the God of Spinoza, the 17th century Dutch Jew who was excommunicated by the Amsterdam rabbinate for his heretical views. Goldman fully acknowledges Einstein's love of, and indebtedness to, Spinoza. But Goldman also explains how Einstein was able to extend Spinoza's concepts through his own theory of relativity, which unifies the notions of "space" and "time" into a single "spacetime" continuum. Readers with an interest in exploring the concept of immortality should find Goldman's discussion fascinating on that point.

I was saddened to see that nine years after this wonderful little book was published, nobody had reviewed it on Amazon.com. I can only blame that on the reality that Einstein's spirituality has failed to capture the public's imagination. What a shame. In an era where people become best selling authors by claiming to have "conversations" with God, we are neglecting our true geniuses who pursued God with the greatest of humility.

Descartes taught us that since we think, we must exist. But Einstein taught us that since we can contemplate the ultimate, the eternal, the infinite -- and since our own thoughts will never even approach that standard -- who are we to doubt its existence? And who are we to say that the word "God" shouldn't be used to describe such ultimacy?

Indeed, maybe the modern scientist doesn't "need" God. But no lesser a scientist than Einstein realized that we might still "want" God just the same.

Passages from this book are quite often cited to demonstrate that Einstein had some degree of "faith", and that he believed that Jesus was an actual historical figure. However, there seems to be very little information and evidence to back up the claims made by this book. Considering its subject matter is indeed controversial and the book is out of print, I would consider its source and legitimacy dubious at best.

There are better documented sources of information on Einstein's thoughts on religion. Most recently, a letter was sold at auction in London:

Albert Einstein described belief in God as "childish superstition" and said Jews were not the chosen people, in a letter to be sold in London the week of May 12, 2008.

The father of relativity, whose previously known views on religion have been more ambivalent and fuelled much discussion, made the comments in response to a philosopher in 1954.

As a Jew himself, Einstein said he had a great affinity with Jewish people but said they "have no different quality for me than all other people".

"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

"No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this," he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper.

The German-language letter is being sold Thursday by Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, said the auction house's managing director Rupert Powell.

In it, the renowned scientist, who declined an invitation to become Israel's second president, rejected the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people.

"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions," he said.

"And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people."

And he added: "As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."

Previously the great scientist's comments on religion -- such as "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind" -- have been the subject of much debate, used notably to back up arguments in favour of faith.
Powell said the letter being sold this week gave a clear reflection of Einstein's real thoughts on the subject. "He's fairly unequivocal as to what he's saying. There's no beating about the bush."