Dr. John Young                                                                                                          4/7/07

Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville

 

 

Einstein and Religion

 

          Albert Einstein’s most famous aphorism about science and religion asserts:

“Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” The person who has studied Einstein’s views on religion most thoroughly is Professor of Physics Max Jammer, who has also led the Bar-Han University in Israel. He is the author of many works on the foundations of physics including Concepts of Space, which contains a preface by Einstein himself, and The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. This sermon is substantially based on Jammer’s 1999 book, Einstein and Religion. The book is divided into three separate but complementary essays: 1. Einstein’s religiosity and the role of religion in his private life, 2. Einstein’s philosophy of religion, and 3. Einstein’s physics and theology. This sermon will also address these three aspects of Albert Einstein’s connections with spirituality.

 

          Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, and he died on April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey. When he was six years old, his family moved to Munich, Germany, and he started school there. Later on, they moved to Italy, and Albert continued his education in Switzerland. He trained at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, he gained his diploma; he acquired Swiss citizenship, and unable to find a teaching post, he was hired as a technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905, he acquired his doctorate in physics. From 1901 to 1909, he worked at the patent office, and he was able in his spare time there to do much of his most revolutionary thinking and writing. After it began to be published and recognized by other scientists, he was hired in 1909 as a Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 in Prague, then back to Zurich, and in 1914 became Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute at the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen and remained in Berlin until 1933, when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and immigrated to America where he became a Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton University. He became a US citizen in 1940 and retired in 1945. Einstein married Mileva Maric in 1903, and they had a daughter and two sons; their marriage was dissolved in 1919, and in the same year, Albert married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal, who died in 1936. Both women were themselves able scientists and were able to support and contribute to his work. In 1921, Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics and later innumerable awards and honors. He was offered and declined the Presidency of the State of Israel; he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After WWII, Einstein was active the World Government Movement.

 

 

          From the beginning of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory of relativity stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory; this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density, and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish a theory of gravitation, and in 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity. During this time he also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics. In the 1920s, he embarked on the construction of unified field theories, continued his probabilistic interpretations of quantum theory and made connections with quantum gas theories, atomic transition and relativistic cosmology. Until the end of his life, Albert Einstein continued to argue for a single unified field theory for reality against an increasing majority of other physicists.

 

          Modern physics bears Einstein’s impact more than any other physicist. His theories have fundamentally changed and deepened our physical and philosophical conceptions of the universe. Along with his scientific ingenuity, his courageous struggle for human rights, social justice and international peace have assured Einstein a unique place in the history of the 20th century.

 

          Max Jammer argues that Einstein’s un-dogmatic and yet profound religiosity and his personal philosophy of religion deeply affected Einstein’s life and his scientific work. Jammer also explores how deeply Einstein’s scientific theories, particularly his theory of relativity, have affected 20th century theological thought. Jammer is aware that Einstein never based his religion on logical inferences from his scientific work and so Jammer readily admits that many of the arguments of later scientists, philosophers, and theologians about the theological implications of Einstein’s scientific theories might be rejected by Einstein. This apparent contradiction is part of what Jammer is interested to explore in his book.

 

          Einstein’s ancestors had lived in Germany at least since 1750. His parents were Jewish in ancestry, and they never renounced their Jewish heritage, but they observed none of the traditional rites and never attended religious services. His father regarded Jewish rituals as relics of ancient superstition and was proud that “Jewish rites were not practiced in his home.” When Albert entered a Catholic primary school in Munich, there was required religious instruction and so his parents hired a relative to teach Albert and his sister the principles of Judaism. His sister, Maja, said that Albert’s relative acquainted in young Albert a fervent religious sentiment. He voluntarily adopted many the Jewish religious prescriptions and practiced them for years until they were replaced by philosophical thought, but he never gave up strict loyalty to personal conscience as a guiding principle. In those early days in Germany, and then, in Switzerland, nature became a regular source of spiritual inspiration. Young Albert synthesized the elements he found constructive and in common in his Jewish and Catholic instructions, and usually disregarded what he found to be conflict between them. He learned the violin at an early age. He thought out and taught himself little religious songs that he would sing to himself, and God, Nature, and Music became inextricably intermingled in Einstein’s faith. In 1930, in Berlin, when he heard Yehudi Menuhin play Bach, Beethoven and Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter, he exclaimed to them afterwards: “Now I know there is a God in heaven.”

 

          This is the way Einstein described his own consolidation of his faith: “When I was a young man, the nothingness of the hopes and strivings which chases most men restlessly through life came to my consciousness with considerable vitality. I realized that everyone was condemned to participate in that chase to satisfy his stomach, but could not fulfill his life as a thinking and feeling being. Thus, I came, despite the fact that I was the son of entirely irreligious parents, to a deep religiosity.”

 

          It seems that Albert seldom faced prejudice as a Jew. He learned to respect sincere religious convictions of whatever denomination, an attitude which he did not abandon when he later rejected any affiliation with any institutional religious organization. Einstein said: “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. I accept the historical existence of Jesus. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. From his early relative, Albert had learned the 10 Commandments and the basic stories of the Old Testament. As a youth in Italy, he learned from other teachers the Psalms, and about the Talmud and Jewish history. At age 12, he suddenly became completely irreligious. His parents had taken in a poor Jewish student who was studying to become a doctor named Max Talmud, and Max directed young Albert’s attention to philosophy and popular science. Albert refused to become bar mitzvahed, a clear signal of rebellion against traditional authority. Immanuel Kant, mathematics, and scientific theories became the new foundation stones for his thinking and action.

 

          In his adult life, Albert Einstein never attended religious service and never prayed in a synagogue or at any other place of worship. He visited such places only to participate in social events or seminars. He raised his children without religious instruction saying that he did not want his children to be “taught something that is contrary to all scientific understanding.” He asked that his body be cremated and his ashes scattered. Thus, he disregarded religious rituals until his death. In current terminology, Einstein was not religious at all, because he was anti-ritualistic, against traditions he considered irrational, and constantly opposed to arbitrary systems of authority. At the same time, in current terminology, Albert Einstein became and remained profoundly spiritual. He never saw science and religion as an antithesis. On the contrary, he regarded science and religion [or as we would say today spirituality] not only as complementary but as mutually dependent upon each other. “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” In 1930, he said that: “all the finer speculations in the realm of science spring form a deep religious feeling, and that without such a feeling these scientific inquiries would not be fruitful.” Einstein had great reverence for the deep mysteries of reality. “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you find behind them all remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration of this force beyond anything we can comprehend is my religion.”

 

          As an adult, Einstein most admired the views of Baruch Spinoza, the 17th century Jewish philosopher, particularly in his Ethics. Spinoza characterized God as an impersonal cosmic order. Divine activities become the law-like course of nature. Good and evil are relative to human desires. God’s will are the laws of nature. Spinoza was a determinist. Humans’ sense of freedom was simply because they did not fully understand the causes of the desires that motivated their behaviors. The ultimate object of religious devotion is the perfect harmony of the universe, and human aspirations must accept the inexorable dictates of the deterministic laws that govern life. Einstein said: “I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, who sees God manifest in all of nature.” It was a scientific formula for monotheism, and although he did not himself believe in a personal God, he also was convinced that it would probably remain a natural and healthy assumption for most of humanity, “renders for the majority the most sublime means” to make sense of reality and their relation to it. In his maturity, Einstein characterized his spiritual attitude as “cosmic religious feeling: recognition of the ultimate futility of human desires and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveals itself both in nature and in the world of thought. As Spinoza had taught: nature is divine and God is One.” This is, of course, the fundamental maxim of Judaism. Einstein remained convinced that the world made sense and was ultimately an evolving harmony. “God does not play dice.”

 

          Einstein was convinced that “science cannot teach men to be moral and every attempt to reduce ethics to scientific formulae must fail.” In 1932, Einstein wrote his Credo at the request of the German League of Human Rights. It says in part: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder is as good as dead. It was this experience of mystery, even if mixed with fear, which engendered religion. The most profound reason and the most radiant beauty constitute the true religiosity. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures. Our spiritual task as human beings is to do our best to comprehend a portion of the marvelous structure of this incredible world. The grace of life is our ability to find the world intelligible and to connect ourselves with this superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience. The first level of religion was religions of fear. The second level of religion is the social level of cultural morality. The third level is the cosmic religious feeling in which one experiences the universe as a single significant whole. Elements of this third level appeared in the Psalms of David, words of the Old Testament prophets, Buddhism and modern philosophers. The religious geniuses of every age have been extinguished by this kind of religious feeling. This is a spirituality which no dogma or God conceived in human images can manifest. It is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with the highest kind of religious feeling, people like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza. The most important function of art and science is to awaken this feeling and to keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.”

 

          In 1948, Albert Einstein agreed to address a group of Unitarian Ministers in New York City. Jacob Trapp, John Lathrop, and Frederick Griffin, then the Director of the Unitarian Association, were present for it. Einstein said in part: “Religion is concerned with man’s attitude toward nature at large, with the establishing of ideals for the individual, and for communal life, and with mutual human relationships. While science is simply systematic thinking directed toward finding regulative connections between our sensual experiences. Science can lead to systematic action provided definite goals are set up in advance. The goals need to be discovered through [spiritual] systems of value. Religion can be highly educational. Its conflicts arise with science only when religion attempts to make dogmatic statements about subjects which belong to the domain of science. The essence of religion divested of false or misleading myths agree in defeating bad human characters and preserving and promoting the sanity and vitality of human communities. Religion prescribes brotherly love, while the actual practices of modern economic and political life are too often guided by principles of ruthless striving for success at the expense of others. We need to emphasize human fraternity and cooperation. Even in some primitive societies, for instance the Pueblo Indians of the American southwest, these principles dominated society; so, it is possible for cultures to widely cultivate such a religion widely in practice. I am advocating a religion which implies a dependence of science upon such a religious attitude, and a religious attitude which is persuaded that this universe is something both evolving perfection and susceptible to our rational striving for knowledge. We need to emphasize not only intellectual attitudes, too completely directed to the practical and factual, but to learn to give equal weight to what men do for one another on this earth in order to achieve mutually creative and liberating relationships. An enlightened religion is critical to this task. Atheism is a [dead-end]. Simply because I do not myself believe in a personal God does not mean that I deny the existence of a [higher power] and consciousness which has both evolved reality and makes our partial comprehension of it possible.”

 

          Einstein’s scientific theories have had revolutionary consequences for significant aspects of modern philosophy and theology. I can in this sermon give you only a few tastes of this vast and varied literature. If space and time are relative, if matter can be transformed into energy and energy into matter, if our observations change reality, then many of the assumptions of classical philosophy and theology may need to be changed. Einstein sometimes contributed to these connections and projections. For instance, he said to his good friend Michele Besso’s family after Besso’s death: “for us faithful physicists, the separation between past, present, and future has only the meaning of an illusion, through a persistent one.”

 

The first use of the term theology was probably in Plato’s dialogue Timaeus in which Plato provides an allegory of creation, God creating a moving likeness of Eternity which abides in unity. God made an eternal image, moving according to number, that we name ‘time.’” Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann created quite a stir when, in a 1981 paper, they “compared Einstein’s concept of the relatively of simultaneity with its theological implications: men traveling along a road to a destination see only the neighborhood they are passing through, but God is above the road and can see the whole journey at once. Taking man’s progress along the road as his progress through time, the analogy suggests that while men can enjoy only one time at once, God can enjoy all times at once.” Many of the theologians focused on incarnation, whether as Christians, Buddhists, or Vashnivite Hindus see the ability to shift from energy to matter as a scientific foundation for God: the Creative energies periodically manifesting itself in the form of a being, either in fact or in human imagination.

 

Alfred North Whitehead in his Process and Reality processed to a ‘process theology’ that seems to work extremely well Einstein’s physics. Whitehead replaces the mechanistic physical world picture of substances with an organic conception of reality as a network of events in space/time. Objects of knowledge are not fully determined as long as they are future events. God knows the present probability of the actualization of a future event, but does not know in advance whether the event will be actualized or not. Whitehead is able to embrace Einstein’s physics without becoming mired in either Einstein’s Spinozian determinism or Einstein’s life-long need for a single all-encompassing theory of reality. God too is in process or evolution, at an incredibly more cosmic level.

 

The power of the observer was argued by Charles Coulson to have important philosophical consequences: “We are both onlookers and actors in the great dramas of existence. Observed from without the will is causally determined; observed from within it is free. The difference lies in the point of view for no answer at all can be given until we have specified explicitly the viewpoint of our observation, and said whether we are actor or spectator.” Many like Nils Bohr had argued that quantum mechanics implied a conceptual structure much like the Buddha’s or Lao-tse’s: trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence, with any element of reality contains enfolded within itself the totality of the universe. Although Einstein showed no interest in Eastern philosophy or religious thought, he too saw the essence of an object to be its connectedness and dependency within a complicated web of interrelations. This simulated many, like physicist Victor Mansfield, to suggest an intimate relationship between the Hindu-Buddhist concepts of emptiness, the experimental refutation of Bell’s Inequality, and the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics.

 

Until the 1960s cosmologists were divided between steady-staters, like Fred Hoyle, and Big Bangers, begun by Edward Tyron. Then, basically the Big Bang became generally accepted. This view of cosmology set up science to see itself as possibly quite connected with a point of Creation and, therefore, theoretically to a Creator. It seemed, to more and more good scientists, that Albert Einstein was correct: “God did not throw dice. Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”