Is it an "error" to disagree with you, b_sharp?
Look, Einstein -- as TigersEye pointed out -- is difficult to "put in a box." To characterize. But when he rejects quantum theory -- as he did until his dying day -- on the supposition that God wouldn't do it that way ("God does not play dice"), then what am I supposed to think?
I strongly doubt that Einstein was a positivist. A physicalist, maybe (actually, even that is doubtful); certainly not a materialist. A positivist could never utter such statements as:
The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is.Are there any statements that we could call "factual" there? Plus this was a man who said his lifelong dream was to "transmute the base wood of matter to the pure marble of geometry." He was aiming for the explication of the totality, not marshalling "facts." I recognize in such statements a profoundly religious consciousness.
Plus there is this:
There is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual’s own feeling, thinking, and acting. The genuine artists, investigators, and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, nonetheless the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.No positivist would be caught dead saying such things.
Look, the man's a puzzle, especially if you accept that he was influenced by Spinoza -- a hyperrationalist -- and Schopenhauer, who propounded the notion of a fundamentally irrational universe. How he reconciled these two in his own mind -- if he ever did -- is beyond my comprehension.
At the end of the day, I'll just say that I have reason to believe that Einstein was a realist -- doubly, in both the Newtonian and the Platonic senses of that word. And like Plato (and Newton for that matter), he felt the "pulls" of the divine in his consciousness, and responded thereto.
Perhaps the difficulty we're having is that you conflate "religiosity" with specific creeds and denominations. I do not. In any case, Einstein wasn't "denominational" at all. He was simply open to God, and he did call Him "The Old One." Looking at his Jewish heritage and culture, and his lifelong identification with "The Tribe," my speculation that The Old One was his fanciful name for the God of the Old Testament is hardly a great stretch, or an irrational one on my part.
Interestingly enough, his admiration for Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza probably stems at least in part from the similarity of the two men. Spinoza was a member of the Hassidic community of Amsterdam. Spinoza was a brilliant student, so much so that his teachers had him marked out for a life as a Rabbi. But then Spinoza started saying all these radical things; and he ended up being excommunicated.
Einstein, too, separated himself from the orthodox Jewish observance; but he never saw himself as other than a Jew, and he never turned his back on his people: he was active in the Zionist movement, among other things. It doesn't matter to me at all whether he was "churched" or "unchurched": His religious temperament and spirit shines through, and I believe it influenced his life and his works as long as he lived.
FWIW, b_sharp. As I said before, we don't disagree on the "evidence." We just disagree about what it all means. I have given you my opinion, based on my understanding, which is partial -- just as yours is. It's a fun speculation. But in the end, Einstein defies ready classification.
Thank you so much for writing!
Of course not.
However you clearly stated that Einstein believed in a personal God and Einstein clearly stated that he did not. You are in error, by Einstein's own words. No interpretation necessary.
"No positivist would be caught dead saying such things."
OK, you have convinced me he is not a positivist.
"At the end of the day, I'll just say that I have reason to believe that Einstein was a realist -- doubly, in both the Newtonian and the Platonic senses of that word. And like Plato (and Newton for that matter), he felt the "pulls" of the divine in his consciousness, and responded thereto.
Do you have any links to his writing where he expresses that 'pull' of the divine?
"Perhaps the difficulty we're having is that you conflate "religiosity" with specific creeds and denominations. I do not.
No, actually I do not. And I do understand Einstein's religiosity. I have no problem with religiosity without a formal religion. But that is not what our argument is about. It was not me that attempted to pigeonhole Einstein's religious beliefs, it was you by asserting with no uncertainty that Einstein believed in a personal God. This by definition, leaves out many other spiritual possibilities including Paganism, Dharmism, Deism and Naturalistic Pantheism. The last two are likely the closest to a description of his belief system.
"In any case, Einstein wasn't "denominational" at all. He was simply open to God, and he did call Him "The Old One."
I never argued otherwise.
"Looking at his Jewish heritage and culture, and his lifelong identification with "The Tribe," my speculation that The Old One was his fanciful name for the God of the Old Testament is hardly a great stretch, or an irrational one on my part.
Except he declared quite clearly and in many places he did not believe in the God of the Bible, including the OT.
I have a strong affinity with my people and was raised with a strict creationist background yet I am an atheist. I have a younger brother raised in the same household as I was who is an OEC. Affinity to a group and upbringing do not guarantee belief system.
You are firmly entrenched in your own interpretation of his belief system, based not on his words but on what you perceive as his life.
I would prefer to take him at his word.
If Einstein were still alive and you asked him point blank if he believed in a personal God, specifically Jehovah of the OT and he unequivocally stated no, would you believe him?