by Comrade Shoaib Nagi

Created on: December 04, 2009

The debate on Albert Einstein's religious views is as heated as the debate of God existence itself. Some regard him an atheist, some agnostic and some regard him as a staunch believer in God.

First we'll take a look on why he is regarded as an agnostic. Perhaps his own statements are used to support this argument. My position concerning God is that of an agnostic.., this is what he said in a letter to M. Berkovitz.

Though born Jewish, at numerous points in his life he denied that he was a Jew. He also regarded himself as a humanist but still we'll explore further in Einstein's God.

Einstein's God, or the view of God he had was an impersonal one. He disaffiliated himself with a God who was concerned with the fate of humankind, but on the other hand, it can be said that he saw a reflection of God in the laws of nature. Perhaps he is quoted saying I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns Himself with fate and doings of mankind.

Throughout his life, his quest for God remained incomplete and he died without clearly revealing his religious beliefs. Though it is clear that he didn't considered himself as a follower of a particular religion, but still he can be regarded as a Deist because of his position of God. His Deism can also be compared to that of the founding fathers of America.

One thing is made clear that whether or not he believe in God, he surely believe in the freedom of man. This means that even if he believed in God, he didn't believed in fate and predestination, he believed that man is free to do anything and God doesn't interrupt or guides him in doing what he does. This can be deduced when he says that he believes in Spinoza's God.

Now we shall look at Spinoza's God. Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin. His stance on God was a pantheistic one. He rejected God as a supernatural being or some sort of controller of the universe. He regarded nature as God, this means he didn't believed that God had anything to do with the human being. This can be classified as Agnostic-Pantheistic belief or a paradox which says that God exists but he doesn't.

Even today, if any book or article is written about Einstein's religious belief, the content of the work would be less based on facts and mainly based on the religious views of the writer himself.

Whether he was an atheist, an agnostic, a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim, a Deist, a Pantheist or any other follower of any other faith, one thing remains clear, that hundred years will pass and still no one would be sure of what Einstein was sure of. The only man who knew Einstein's religious belief was Einstein himself.

Ending this article, I'll leave you with one of his quote It seems hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that He plays dice and uses 'telepathic' methods... is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.

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