Have a Little Faith

Einstein, God, and the new atheists

Photo by Maks Key on Unsplash

I just finished listening to Walter Isaacson's extensive Albert Einstein biography during my daily commute. Something that was repeated endlessly in the stories told of his life was that Einstein was, like many great thinkers, heavily engaged in many topics outside of his direct expertise. Sometimes this ends up making a fool of the intellectual figure, but in this case I think the contrary is true. Einstein, when he was not thinking about his world-shaking achievements in physics, was an ardent pacifist and socialist in support of a unified world government. He was a humanist and endlessly advocated for individual liberty and expression. As such, he was actively opposed to hyper-nationalist, Bolshevic communist¹, and fascist regimes. He was also, seemingly paradoxically, an anti-atheist.

Atheism, socialism, and humanism often go hand-in-hand among philosophers and intellectuals, like Bertrand Russel, but it is not always a direct relationship. This was true for Albert Einstein. He wrote often in the 1930s about his views of religion and specifically God's place in the universe. He was a believer in Spinoza’s conception of God. This adherence led him to believe that God is not engaged in day-to-day control of the universe. Rather, God is the universe itself. By discovering more and more laws of the natural world, Einstein felt that one could get closer to understanding God, but it was, in the end, an impossible task. Beyond his personal beliefs, he viewed the atheists that vociferously attack the religious with scorn. In Isaacson's biography, Einstein is quoted as saying,

[T]he fanatical atheists...are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who—in their grudge against the traditional 'opium of the people'—cannot bear the music of the spheres.

In short they tend to throw the baby out with the bath water. This stood out to me as a direct parallel to the anti-evangelical movement permeating through society. In an attempt to undermine the world they grew up in, these types swing the pendulum so far as to come full circle. They use the tools of the hyper religious: censorship, purity tests, and moralizing, to pursue ever changing social justice goals. When aggressively seeking retribution for wrongs in their past, these neo puritans levy these same wrongs on their perceived enemies. Furthermore, in destroying this enemy thoroughly, they ignore the good that can come from the people they abhor. I am not an evangelical, nor do I think that they are the best model of citizen in a society. But I am a large proponent of keeping the baby in spite of the bath water². The erasure of the past is hallmark of the most sinister regimes in history, and those that Einstein abhorred. Maybe it is best not to follow their lead.

1. This view changed over time and eventually viewed the Leninists project as a worthy one, despite the poor methods. Not everyone is perfect.

2. This credo is tested in the episode of Missing Pages on slavery coming next month. I will discuss that conflict in more detail subsequently.