National Geographic’s biopic series “Genius” about the life of Albert Einstein is receiving positive feedback, according to user reviews from the movie database, IMDB. However, the latest episode, the eighth in a ten part series, may cause a stir among those who are familiar with Albert Einstein’s views about God.
For the second time in the series, Albert Einstein was quoted – without qualification – as being a believer in a traditional “creator God.” The fictional Einstein, played by actor Geoffrey Rush, states,
“What I believe is that the universe is so extraordinary only God could have created it.”
Albert Einstein has no such quote and is well known by scholars and by his own words to have rejected the idea of a personal creator God. Yet, he is often claimed by theists as one of their own.
The series is based on the writings of Walter Isaacson – himself reportedly a theist – who has been previously accused of spreading false quotes about Einstein and his supposed theistic ideas. The quote in the series appears to be based on a 1954 interview in which Einstein stated in full,
“I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar. I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.”
PS Here is what I think a particularly good Wikipedia article on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_and_philosophical_views_of_Albert_Einstein
I have to thank you for this quote. It is the best evidence of Einstein’s belief in God I’ve yet come across. I too saw “Genius” recently and was muttering out loud if there was any documentation of Einstein actually saying that only God could have created the universe. I’m not that surprised that there probably is not. But, people not familiar with theology often confuse not believing in a “personal God” with personally not believing in one. Einstein’s quote is a wonderful example of someone quite emphatically believing in God’s existence, but just not in the popular conception of such a belief.
Not accepting the idea of “a personal God” simply means that Einstein did not believe in a man with a long, gray beard in the clouds, busily doling out rewards and punishments for everyone on earth. And Einstein probably also meant that he didn’t believe that Jesus, Buddha or Rama were fully Divine. But his second sentence quickly puts to rest any debate on whether Einstein personally believed in God. “His God” was smart enough to create principles which perform those tasks in a much more reasonable (and efficient?) fashion, as any God that does not play dice with the universe would. In theological terms, this is often referred to as the difference between a God with form, and a God without form. Einstein is stating rather unequivocally that he (personally) believes in the latter. But that God is no less the Primal Cause; omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, than the God with form, i.e. a personal God. And Einstein’s universe which is ruled by those “immutable laws”, which reward good punish evil, seem to be identical with the Law of Karma, with which Einstein was reportedly very familiar.
So, it would seem that professor Einstein was simply more Hindu than Christian, Jewish or Buddhist (seeing as Buddhists don’t accept the traditional idea of God at all) in his cosmology.
So, thanks once again.