Einstein and Religion

Written by Editor in Chief, Pick The Brain - 7 Comments
Categories: philosophy

One of the first posts I wrote for this site covered Einstein’s religious beliefs. Recently, the comment thread has taken on a life of it’s own.

Yesterday Penny pointed me to a recent TIME article that follows the development of Einstein’s beliefs from early childhood to his complicated relationship with the religious and political figures of his time.

It’s a great article and well worth reading. It even goes into Einstein’s beliefs (or lack their of) regarding free will.

“Human beings in their thinking, feeling and acting are not free but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions,” Einstein declared in a statement to a Spinoza Society in 1932. It was a concept he drew also from his reading of Schopenhauer. “Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity,” he wrote in his famous credo. “Schopenhauer’s saying, ‘A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills,’ has been a real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance.”

But despite his conviction in a mechanized universe, Einstein was capable of believing in free will for practical purposes.

“I am compelled to act as if free will existed,” he explained, “because if I wish to live in a civilized society I must act responsibly.” He could even hold people responsible for their good or evil, since that was both a pragmatic and sensible approach to life, while still believing intellectually that everyone’s actions were predetermined. “I know that philosophically a murderer is not responsible for his crime,” he said, “but I prefer not to take tea with him.”

Really makes you wonder.

  • http://dmiracle.com Dawud Miracle

    Boy does this open up an interesting conversation.

    I’ve been studying Sufism for 10 years. Well, more than studying, I’ve been actively engaged as a student under a teacher in this ancient spiritual science.

    One of the main teachings is that everything in existence is manifest from our Creator. Nothing, then, truly comes from free will. Yet, from a certain perspective we have the perception that we have free will. Yet, this free will is merely an illusion.

    It’s a paradox which Einstein sounds like he had a grasp of.

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    I never heard of Sufism, but it sounds interesting. I’ve been trying to sort out the issue of freewill in my mind for about a year.

    On the one hand, I firmly believe that the workings of our minds, our desires, our will, are all subject to cause and effect. We can’t control our disposition or the experiences we receive.

    On the other hand, how can you live on a day to day basis without believing in free will, at least to some degree?

    I think that article helped me reach the same conclusions as Einstein. Philosophically, I can’t believe in free will, but I still find it necessary to live by it for practical reasons.

    As you said, it’s an interesting paradox.

  • penny

    Dear John,
    Rumi is a great Sufi poet. Sufi is the mystical side of Islam–though a true Sufi will say it is independent of any particular religion.

    In particular, it has interesting concepts of psychology, things that western psychology has yet to understand.

    All of the great mystical eastern trads see
    free will in the way explained below. It is already in the Uppinshads:

    Free Will is about the illusion of a Self.
    But, Self depends on the system interaction–thus, in a certain context there is no Self–in others it certainly exists.

    It has to do with the concept of non set forming relation in math. Here is a verbal example from Physics:

    Friction is a “nonconservative force” i.e.
    When matter moves on a closed path with friction, it doesn’t return to its original energy state. Energy has been lost.

    But, the paradox is that there are five basic forces in nature of which all forces are constructed and they are Conservative: No energy is lost on return to the original position. So friction CANNOT be nonconservative.

    The explaination is that when you consider the WHOLE system ( including the atoms of the friction bearing surface) Energy IS conserved. But, ignoring the
    whole system and considering just the mass in motion we clearly see friction–you can make a fire with it.

    In the same way: from the perspective of the ENTIRE universe, there is no self and no free will. But, of one can’t see the whole universe, there is a self and hence free will.
    Penny

  • http://www.neocortex.uv.ro/index.php/life/2007/04/10/einsteins-religious-beliefs/. Einstein’s Religious Beliefs · neocortex, lovely content since ever

    [...] John Wesley has an excellent article on his blog about Einstein’s religious beliefs and what religion really is these days, a mix of fear and morality.God is a need to believe in someone who guides us and loves us.But there is a higher form of religion, the ‘cosming religious feeling’, how John Wesley calls it, i call it universal enlightenment. Link Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    The Dilbert Blog just covered the same post. He agrees with Einstein and added a bunch of his own commentary on free will.

    http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/04/things_that_sho.html

    It’s good to see the article is getting some attention.

  • http://dmiracle.com Dawud Miracle

    John, I think we are created to live our day-to-day life with the idea that we have complete free will and control over our lives. The questions come in when things out of our control happen to us. Is it cause & effect or is it of Divine Will in nature?

    Sufism comes from the word tasawwuf (ta-SAW-woof) which literally translates as the science of the self. So Sufism involves itself with the study, knowledge and unveiling to the deepest parts of our selves.

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