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Did Einstein pray? What did the genius think about God? Albert Einstein about gods, prayer, atheism and the afterlife (selection of quotes from publications during his lifetime).

Albert Einstein not only did not believe or even denied the existence of God, the belief in which is inherent in traditional monotheistic religions. Albert Einstein went even further - he argued that if such gods existed, and what religions say about them were true, then such gods could not be considered highly moral. Gods who rewarded good and punished evil would themselves be immoral - especially if they were omnipotent and therefore ultimately responsible for everything that happens. Gods who are characterized by human weaknesses cannot be virtuous gods.

1. Almighty God cannot judge humanity

If this being is omnipotent, then everything that happens, including all human actions, all human thoughts, feelings and aspirations, is also his work: how can people be held responsible for their actions and thoughts to such an omnipotent being? By punishing and rewarding others, it would, to a certain extent, make judgments on itself. How can this be reconciled with the goodness and righteousness that is attributed to him?

Albert Einstein, From My Later Years, 1950

2. I don’t believe in a God who rewards good and punishes evil.

I do not believe in a theological god who rewards good and punishes evil.

3. I don’t believe in a God who has perceptions similar to ours.

I cannot imagine a god who rewards and punishes the creatures he creates, or who has a will akin to ours. Equally, I cannot and do not want to imagine someone who would remain alive after his own physical death. Let cowardly people - out of fear or out of absurd selfishness - cherish such thoughts. Let the mystery of the eternity of life remain unsolved - it is enough for me to contemplate the wonderful structure of the existing world and strive to understand at least a tiny particle of the Main Cause that manifests itself in nature.

4. I can't believe in a God who reflects human weaknesses.

I cannot imagine a god who rewards those whom he himself created, those whose aspirations are similar to his own - in short, a god who is only a reflection of human weaknesses. And I don’t believe at all that a person can survive the death of his body, although weak souls console themselves with such thoughts - out of fear and absurd selfishness.

Quotes about God Personified and Prayers

Albert Einstein viewed belief in a personal God as a child's fantasy.

Did Albert Einstein believe in God? Many believers cite Einstein as an example of an outstanding scientist who was a believer like them. And this supposedly refutes the idea that science is contrary to religion or that science is atheistic. However, Albert Einstein consistently and unequivocally denied belief in personal gods who answer prayers or take part in human affairs– and this is precisely the kind of god worshiped by believers who claim that Einstein was one of them.

1. God is the fruit of human weakness

The word “god” for me is nothing more than a fruit and a manifestation of human weakness, and the Bible is a collection of worthy, but still childishly primitive legends. And no amount of even the most subtle interpretations will change my attitude towards them.

2. Albert Einstein and Spinoza’s God: harmony in the universe

I believe in Spinoza's God, who manifests himself in the ordered harmony of existence, and not in a God who is concerned with human destinies and actions.

Albert Einstein, in response to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein's question, “Do you believe in God?” (quoted in Victor Stenger’s book “Has Science Found God?”)

3. It's not true that I believe in a personal God.

This, of course, is a lie - what you read about my religious beliefs, a lie that is systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God, I have never denied this and have openly stated this. If there is anything in me that can be called religious, it is my boundless admiration for the structure of the world, as far as our science reveals it to us.

Albert Einstein, Letter to an Atheist (1954), quoted in Albert Einstein as a Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann

4. Gods are created by human imagination

In the early period of the spiritual evolution of the human race, human imagination created gods similar to people themselves - gods to whose will the world around them was obedient.

Albert Einstein, quoted in 2000 Years of Unbelief, James Haught

5. The idea of a personified god is baby talk

6. The idea of a personal god cannot be taken seriously

It seems to me that the idea of a personal god is an anthropological concept that I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine the existence of any will or purpose outside the human sphere... Science has been accused of undermining morality, but this accusation is unfair. Human ethical behavior should be based on empathy, education, social connections and needs, and there is no need for any religious basis. A person will be on a bad path if his actions are restrained only by the fear of punishment and the hope of reward after death.

7. Faith in God is created by the desire to be guided and loved.

The desire for someone to show them the way, love and support leads people to form social or moral concepts about God. This is the god of providence, who protects, disposes, rewards and punishes; a god who, depending on the boundaries of the believer’s worldview, loves and cares about the lives of his fellow tribesmen or the entire human race, or in general all living things; comforts those who are sad and whose dreams have not come true; the one who preserves the souls of the dead. It is a social or moral concept of God.

8. Moral issues concern people, not gods.

I cannot imagine a personal god who would have a direct influence on the actions of people, or who would judge the creatures that he himself created. I can’t imagine this even though I have modern science Some doubts have arisen regarding mechanistic causation. My religiosity consists in a reverent admiration for that higher spirit which is manifested in the little that we, with our weak and imperfect faculties, can comprehend about the world around us. Morality is of paramount importance, but for us, not for God.

Albert Einstein, quoted in Albert Einstein as a Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann

9. Scientists are not inclined to believe in the power of prayer to supernatural beings.

Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that happens is determined by the laws of nature, and therefore this is also true for human actions. For this reason, the scientific researcher is unlikely to be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, a request addressed to a supernatural being.

Albert Einstein, 1936, responding to a child who asked in a letter whether scientists pray. Quoted in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Elena Duke and Banesh Hoffman

10. Few manage to rise above anthropomorphic gods

What all these types have in common is the anthropomorphic nature of their concept of God. As a rule, only a few, exceptionally gifted people, and exceptionally highly developed groups of people are able to rise significantly above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience which is common to all of them, although rarely found in its pure form: I will call this the cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to awaken this feeling in those who completely lack it - especially since there is no corresponding anthropomorphic concept of God.

11. The concept of a personified god is a major source of conflict

No one, of course, will deny that the idea of \u200b\u200bthe existence of an omnipotent, just and all-good personal God is able to give man comfort, help and guidance, and also, due to its simplicity, it is accessible to even the most undeveloped minds. But, on the other hand, she also has weaknesses that are of a decisive nature, which were painfully felt from the very beginning of history.

12. Divine will cannot be the cause natural phenomena

How more people imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the stronger becomes his conviction that next to this ordered regularity there is no place for causes of a different nature. For him, neither human nor divine will will be independent causes of natural phenomena. ...

Albert Einstein, Science and Religion, 1941

Quotes about atheism and freethinking

Albert Einstein didn't believe in any traditional gods, but is that atheism?

Believers who need the authority of a famous scientist sometimes claim that Albert Einstein was a religious man, but Einstein rejected the traditional concept of a personified god. Does this mean that Albert Einstein was an atheist? From a certain point of view, his position can be considered atheism or no different from atheism. He called himself a freethinker, which in Germany is considered the same thing as atheism, but it is unclear whether Einstein rejected all concepts of God.

1. From the Jesuit point of view, I am an atheist

I received your letter dated June 10th. I have never spoken to a Jesuit priest in my life, and I am amazed at the boldness with which such lies are told about me. From the point of view of a Jesuit priest, I am, of course, an atheist, and always have been an atheist.

Albert Einstein, from a letter to Guy Rahner Jr., July 2, 1945, in response to a rumor that a Jesuit priest had managed to persuade Einstein to renounce atheism. Quoted by Michael Gilmore in Skeptic Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2

2. False Bible Claims Have Caused Skepticism and Freethinking

As I read popular science literature, I quickly became convinced that much of what was written in the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a completely fanatical orgy of free thought, to which was added the impression that these lies were deliberately used by the state to fool the youth; it was a crushing experience. The result was a distrust of any authority and a skeptical attitude towards the beliefs inherent in any social environment- an attitude that never left me, although it later softened as a result of a better understanding of cause-and-effect relationships.

Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes, edited by Paul Arthur Schlipp

3. Albert Einstein in defense of Bertrand Russell

Great minds always face fierce opposition from mediocre minds. Mediocrity fails to understand a person who refuses to bow blindly to accepted prejudices, but instead decides to speak his mind with courage and honesty.

Albert Einstein, from a letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at New York College, March 19, 1940. Einstein supported the appointment of Bertrand Russell to the teaching position.

4. Few people manage to avoid the prejudices inherent in their environment.

Few people are able to calmly express their views if they diverge from the accepted prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such views.

Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, 1954

5. A person’s value depends on the degree of his freedom from himself

The real value of a person is determined primarily by the extent and sense in which he has achieved liberation from himself.

Albert Einstein, The World as It Seems Me, 1949

6. Non-believers can be just as bigoted as believers.

The fanaticism of an unbeliever is almost as ridiculous to me as the fanaticism of a believer.

Albert Einstein, quoted in Einstein's God - Albert Einstein as a Scientist and as a Jew in Search of a Replacement for a Rejected God, 1997

7. I'm not a professional militant atheist.

I have said many times that in my opinion the idea of a personal god is just baby talk. You may call me an agnostic because I do not share the belligerence of a professional atheist whose ardor arises chiefly from the painful process of liberation from the shackles of the religious training of his youth. I maintain a humility appropriate to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and ourselves.

Albert Einstein in conversation with Guy Rahner Jr., September 28, 1949, quoted by Michael Gilmore in Skeptic, Vol. 5, No. 2

Quotes about life after death

Albert Einstein denied life after physical death, the possibility of immortality and the presence of a soul.

Belief in an afterlife and the existence of the soul are fundamental principles not only of most religions, but also of most spiritualist and paranormal beliefs today. Albert Einstein denied any validity to the belief that we can survive our physical death. Einstein believed that there is no afterlife, and after death there is neither punishment for crimes nor reward for good behavior. Albert Einstein's denial of the possibility of life after death gives reason to believe that he did not believe in any gods, and stems from his rejection of traditional religion.

1. I cannot imagine a person surviving his physical death.

Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, 1931

2. Weak souls believe in life after death out of fear and selfishness.

3. I don't believe in human immortality

I do not believe in the immortality of man, and I believe that ethics is a purely human matter, behind which there is no supernatural authority.

Quoted in Albert Einstein as a Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann

4. After death there is no reward or punishment

A person's ethical behavior should be based on empathy, education, social connections and needs, and there is no need for any religious basis. A person will be on a bad path if his actions are restrained only by the fear of punishment and the hope of reward after death.

5. Only space is truly immortal

If people act well only out of fear of punishment and hope of reward, then our fate is sad. The further the spiritual evolution of humanity advances, the more confident I am that the path to true religiosity lies not through fear of life, fear of death and blind faith, but through the desire for rational knowledge. As for immortality, there are two types of it. ...

Albert Einstein, from Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask the American Atheists, Madeleine Murray O'Hair

6. The concept of soul is empty and meaningless

Modern mystical tendencies, which especially manifest themselves in the unbridled growth of so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, are for me nothing more than a sign of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experience consists of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seems empty and meaningless to me.

Selection of quotes and translation from English: Lev Mitnikin.

Nikolai Kladov: =Well, well. It's funny. I just want to classify myself as one of the dense militant atheists. I could cite here the statements of all the greats about faith in God, but why? Here are quotes from one of your “believers”: “Gods are created by human imagination” (pagan gods – yes (S.L.)). "Scientists are not inclined to believe in the power of prayer to supernatural beings." “God is the fruit of human weakness.” Everything said applies to Albert Einstein. So you, sir, lied...=

Answer.
Apparently, you, Mr. Kladov, are not only lying (there is not a single reference to the original source), but also ignorant, like any dense militant atheist.)

And this is Albert Einstein about you:

“Despite all the harmony of the cosmos, which I, with my limited mind, am still able to perceive, there are those who claim that there is no God. But what irritates me most is that they quote me in support of their views.” (Quoted in Clark 1973, 400; Jammer 2002, 97). .

“There are also fanatical atheists... They are like slaves, still feeling the oppression of chains thrown off after a hard struggle. They rebel against the “opium of the people” - the music of the spheres is unbearable for them. The miracle of nature does not become less because it can be measured by human morals and human goals." (Quoted in Max Jammer, Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology, Princeton University Press, 2002, 97).

Albert Einstein on GOD:
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1. “I want to know how God created the world. I am not interested in certain phenomena in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest is details.” (quoted in Ronald Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, London, Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1973, 33).

2. “We are like a child who finds himself in a huge library, in which there are many books different languages. The child knows that someone wrote these books, but does not know how they were written. He does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child vaguely suspects that there is some mystical order in the arrangement of books, but he does not know what this order is.
It seems to me that even the wisest of people looks exactly like this before God. We see that the universe is arranged in a wonderful way and obeys certain laws, but we barely understand these laws. Our limited minds are unable to comprehend the mysterious force that moves the constellations." (Quoted in Denis Brian, Einstein: A Life, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1996, 186).

3. "We all live by the will of God and develop almost identical spiritual abilities. Jew or Gentile, slave or free, we all belong to God." (quoted in H. G. Garbedian, Albert Einstein: Maker of Universes, New York, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1939, 267).

4. “Anyone who is seriously engaged in science comes to the realization that in the laws of nature a Spirit is manifested, which is much higher than the human, - a Spirit in the face of which we, with our limited powers, must feel our own weakness. In this sense, scientific searches lead to religious feeling special kind which indeed differs in many respects from the more naive religiosity." (Saying made by Einstein in 1936. Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann, Albert Einstein: The Human Side, Princeton University Press, 1979, 33).

5. "Than deeper man penetrates into the secrets of nature, the more he reveres God." (Quoted in Brian 1996, 119).

6. “The most beautiful and profound experience that befalls a person is the feeling of mystery. It lies at the basis of true science. Anyone who has not experienced this feeling, who is no longer overwhelmed by awe, is practically dead. This deep emotional confidence in the existence of a higher intelligent power revealing itself in the incomprehensibility of the Universe is my idea of God." (Quoted in Libby Anfinsen 1995).

7. “My religion consists of a feeling of humble admiration for the boundless intelligence that manifests itself in the smallest details of the picture of the world, which we are only able to partially grasp and know with our minds.” (Saying made by Einstein in 1936. Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann 1979, 66).

8. “The more I study the world, the stronger my faith in God.” (Quoted in: Holt 1997).

9. Max Yammer (emeritus professor of physics, author of the biography Einstein and Religion (2002), argues that widely famous saying Einstein's "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind" - quintessence religious philosophy great scientist. (Jammer 2002; Einstein 1967,30).

10. “In the Judeo-Christian religious tradition we find the highest principles by which we must guide all our aspirations and judgments. Our feeble powers are not sufficient to reach this highest goal, but it forms the sure foundation of all our aspirations and value judgments.” (Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years, New Jersey, Littlefield, Adams and Co., 1967, 27).

11. “Despite all the harmony of the cosmos, which I, with my limited mind, am still able to perceive, there are those who claim that there is no God. But what irritates me most is that they quote me in support of their views.” (Quoted in Clark 1973, 400; Jammer 2002, 97).

12. "True religion is true life, life with all the soul, with all its goodness and righteousness." (Quoted in Garbedian 1939, 267).

13. “Behind all the greatest achievements of science there is confidence in the logical harmony and knowability of the world - a confidence that is akin to a religious experience... This deep emotional confidence in the existence of a higher intelligent power, revealed in the incomprehensibility of the Universe, is my idea of God.” (Einstein 1973, 255).

14. "Tense" mental activity and the study of God's Nature - these are the angels who will guide me through all the hardships of this life, give me consolation, strength and uncompromisingness." (Quoted in: Calaprice 2000, ch. 1).

15. Einstein's opinion about Jesus Christ was expressed in his interview with the American magazine "The Saturday Evening Post" (The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929):
"What influence did Christianity have on you?
- As a child, I studied both the Bible and the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am fascinated by the bright personality of the Nazarene.
-Have you read the book about Jesus written by Emil Ludwig?
- The portrait of Jesus painted by Emil Ludwig is too superficial. Jesus is so large-scale that it defies the pen of phrase-mongers, even very skilled ones. Christianity cannot be rejected just on the basis of a catchphrase.
- Do you believe in the historical Jesus?
- Of course! It is impossible to read the Gospel without feeling the real presence of Jesus. His personality breathes in every word. No myth has such a powerful vital force."
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ALBERT EINSTEIN - NOBEL PRIZE WINNER IN PHYSICS
Nobel Prize: Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his contributions to the development of quantum theory and "for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." Einstein is one of the founders of modern physics, creator of the theory of relativity. In December 2000, the media (according to Reuters) called Einstein "the man of the second millennium."
Citizenship: Germany; was later a citizen of Switzerland and the United States.
Education: Doctor of Philosophy (physics), University of Zurich, Switzerland, 1905.
Professional activity: expert at the patent office, Bern, 1902-1908; Professor of Physics at the Universities of Zurich, Prague, Bern and Princeton (New Jersey).

You can see what other great scientists thought about GOD at http://www.scienceandapologetics.org/text/314.htm They believed in God: fifty Nobel laureates and other great scientists

Reviews

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia
This article is about the religious views of Albert Einstein. For books with this title, see Einstein and Religion (disambiguation).

Albert Einstein's religious views have been widely studied. However, there are still debates and myths about his beliefs, views and attitude towards religion. He said that he believed in the “pantheistic” God of Benedict Spinoza, but not in a personified God - he criticized such a belief. He also called himself an agnostic, but rejected the label "atheist", preferring "a humility corresponding to the weakness of our understanding of nature by reason and of our own being."

Einstein was raised by non-religious Jewish parents. In his Autobiographical Notes, Einstein wrote that he gradually lost faith in early childhood:

...I - although I was the child of non-religious parents - was deeply religious until the age of 12, when my faith came to an abrupt end. Soon, through reading popular science books, I became convinced that much of the Bible stories could not be true. The consequence of this was a downright fanatical free-thinking, combined with the impression that the state was deceiving the youth; it was a devastating conclusion. Such experiences gave rise to distrust of all kinds of authorities and a skeptical attitude towards the beliefs and convictions that lived in the social environment that surrounded me at that time. This skepticism never left me, although it lost its sharpness later, when I better understood the cause-and-effect relationships. It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth thus lost was the first attempt to free ourselves from the shackles of the “personal ego” from an existence dominated by desires, hopes, primitive feelings. There, outside, was this big world, which exists independently of us, people, and is a huge eternal mystery for us, accessible, however, at least in part, to our perception and our mind. Contemplation of this world was liberating, and I soon became convinced that many of those whom I had learned to value and respect found their inner freedom and confidence by giving themselves entirely to this pastime. Mental coverage, within the framework of the possibilities available to us, of this extra-personal world, which seemed to me half consciously and half unconsciously, as the highest goal. Those who thought this way, whether they were my contemporaries or people of the past, together with the conclusions they drew, were my only constant friends. The road to this paradise was not as convenient and attractive as the road to the religious paradise, but it turned out to be reliable, and I never regretted that I chose it
- Einstein, Albert (1979). Autobiographical Notes. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, pp. 3-5

And your article:
"I want to know how God created the world. I am not interested in certain phenomena in the spectrum of this or that element."

I also think this is the most important thing.
Who knows HOW? the world was created - he is the believer.
The rest are demagogues who deceive themselves and others. NK.

Nobel Prize: Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his contributions to quantum theory and “for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” Einstein is one of the founders of modern physics, creator of the theory of relativity. In December 2000, the media (according to Reuters) called Einstein “the man of the second millennium.”

Citizenship: Germany; was later a citizen of Switzerland and the United States.

Education: Doctor of Philosophy (Physics), University of Zurich, Switzerland, 1905

Professional activity: expert at the patent office, Bern, 1902-1908; Professor of Physics at the Universities of Zurich, Prague, Bern and Princeton (New Jersey).

1. I want to know how God created the world. I am not interested in certain phenomena in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details.” (quoted in Ronald Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, London, Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1973, 33).

2. “We are like a child who finds himself in a huge library, in which there are many books in different languages. The child knows that someone wrote these books, but does not know how they were written. He does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child vaguely suspects that there is some mystical order in the arrangement of books, but he does not know what this order is. It seems to me that even the wisest of people looks exactly like this before God. We see that the universe is arranged in a wonderful way and obeys certain laws, but we barely understand these laws. Our limited minds are unable to comprehend the mysterious force that moves the constellations." (Quoted in Denis Brian, Einstein: A Life, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1996, 186).

3. “If Judaism (as preached by the prophets) and Christianity (as preached by Jesus Christ) are purged of all subsequent additions - especially those made by priests - then what remains is a doctrine capable of healing all social diseases humanity. And it is the duty of every person of good will to fight stubbornly in his own little world, to the best of his ability, for the implementation of this teaching of pure humanity.” (Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, New York, Bonanza Books, 1954, 184-185).

4. “After all, haven’t the fanatics of both religions exaggerated the differences between Judaism and Christianity? We all live by the will of God and develop almost identical spiritual abilities. Jew or Gentile, slave or free, we all belong to God.” (quoted in H. G. Garbedian, Albert Einstein: Maker of Universes, New York, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1939, 267).

5. “Anyone who seriously engages in science comes to the realization that in the laws of nature there is manifested a Spirit that is much higher than the human - a Spirit in the face of which we, with our limited powers, must feel our own weakness. In this sense, scientific research leads to a religious feeling of a special kind, which really differs in many ways from a more naive religiosity.” (A statement made by Einstein in 1936. Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann, Albert Einstein: The Human Side, Princeton University Press, 1979, 33).

6. “The deeper a person penetrates into the secrets of nature, the more he reveres God.” (Quoted in Brian 1996, 119).

7. “The most beautiful and profound experience that befalls a person is the feeling of mystery. It lies at the heart of true science. Anyone who has not experienced this feeling, who is no longer overwhelmed by awe, is practically dead. This deep emotional confidence in the existence of a higher intelligent power, revealed in the incomprehensibility of the Universe, is my idea of God.” (Quoted in Libby Anfinsen 1995).

8. “My religion consists of a feeling of humble admiration for the boundless intelligence that manifests itself in the smallest details of the picture of the world, which we are only able to partially grasp and know with our minds.” (Saying made by Einstein in 1936. Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann 1979, 66).

9. “The more I study the world, the stronger my faith in God.” (Quoted in Holt 1997).

10. Max Yammer (emeritus professor of physics, author of the biographical book “Einstein and Religion” (Einstein and Religion, 2002), argues that the well-known statement “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” is the quintessence of Einstein’s religious philosophy of the great scientist. (Jammer 2002; Einstein 1967, 30).

11. “In the Judeo-Christian religious tradition we find the highest principles that should guide all our aspirations and judgments. Our feeble powers are not sufficient to reach this higher goal, but it forms the sure foundation of all our aspirations and value judgments.” (Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years, New Jersey, Littlefield, Adams and Co., 1967, 27).

12. “Despite all the harmony of the cosmos, which I, with my limited mind, am still able to perceive, there are those who claim that there is no God. But what irritates me the most is that they quote me to support their views.” (Quoted in Clark 1973, 400; Jammer 2002, 97).

13. About fanatical atheists, Einstein wrote: “There are also fanatical atheists, whose intolerance is akin to the intolerance of religious fanatics - and it comes from the same source. They are like slaves who still feel the weight of chains thrown off after a hard struggle. They rebel against the “opium of the people” - the music of the spheres is unbearable for them. The miracle of nature does not become less because it can be measured by human morals and human goals.” (Quoted in Max Jammer, Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology, Princeton University Press, 2002, 97).

14. “True religion is true life, life with all the soul, with all its goodness and righteousness.” (Quoted in Garbedian 1939, 267).

15. “Behind all the greatest achievements of science there is confidence in the logical harmony and knowability of the world - a confidence that is akin to a religious experience... This deep emotional confidence in the existence of a higher intelligent power, revealed in the incomprehensibility of the Universe, is my idea of God.” (Einstein 1973, 255).

16. “Strong mental activity and the study of God’s Nature are the angels that will guide me through all the hardships of this life, give me consolation, strength and uncompromisingness.” (Quoted in: Calaprice 2000, ch. 1).

17. Einstein’s opinion about Jesus Christ was expressed in his interview with the American magazine “The Saturday Evening Post” (The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929):
“What influence did Christianity have on you?

As a child, I studied both the Bible and the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am fascinated by the bright personality of the Nazarene.

Have you read the book about Jesus written by Emil Ludwig?

Emil Ludwig's portrait of Jesus is too superficial. Jesus is so large-scale that it defies the pen of phrase-mongers, even very skilled ones. Christianity cannot be rejected just on the basis of a catchphrase.

Do you believe in the historical Jesus?

Of course! It is impossible to read the Gospel without feeling the real presence of Jesus. His personality breathes in every word. No myth has such a powerful vital force.”

excerpt from the book

Einstein's God

Religion and Free Will in the Uncertain
the world of quantum mechanics.

Religiosity and scientific method may seem incompatible only at first glance. Throughout his life, the scientist, whose revolutionary discoveries in the field of physics determined the entire subsequent history of mankind, tried to explain his understanding of God - as a supreme intelligence that reveals itself in the incomprehensible universe and inspires all true art and science. T&P is publishing a chapter from Walter Isaacson's book on Albert Einstein, forthcoming from Corpus.

One evening in Berlin, at a dinner party attended by Einstein and his wife, one of the guests declared that he believed in astrology. Einstein laughed at him by calling such a statement clean water superstition. Another guest entered the conversation and spoke equally disparagingly about religion. Belief in God, he insisted, is also superstition.

The owner tried to stop him, noting that even Einstein believed in God.

“This can’t be true,” remarked the skeptical guest, turning to Einstein to find out if he was really religious.

“Yes, you can call it that,” Einstein replied calmly. - Try it using our limited opportunities, understand the secrets of nature, and you will discover that behind all the discernible laws and connections there remains something elusive, intangible and incomprehensible. Honoring the power behind what we can comprehend is my religion. In that sense, I'm really religious."

Einstein the boy believed enthusiastically, but then passed adolescence, and he rebelled against religion. For the next thirty years, he tried to speak less on this topic. But closer to fifty, in articles, interviews and letters, Einstein began to more clearly formulate that he was increasingly aware of his belonging to the Jewish people and, in addition, to talk about his faith and his ideas about God, although rather impersonal and deistic.

Probably, besides the natural inclination of a person approaching fifty years of age to think about the eternal, there were other reasons for this. The continued oppression of the Jews gave Einstein a sense of kinship with his fellow Jews, which in turn reawakened his religious feelings to some extent. But mainly this belief was apparently a consequence of awe and a sense of transcendental order revealed through the pursuit of science.

Both captivated by the beauty of the gravitational field equations and rejecting the uncertainties of quantum mechanics, Einstein had an unshakable faith in the order of the Universe. This was the basis not only of his scientific, but also of his religious worldview. “The greatest satisfaction comes to the scientist,” he wrote in 1929, when he realized “that the Lord God Himself could not have made these relations other than what they are, and, moreover, it was not in His power to make them so that four was not the most important number.”

For Einstein, as for most people, belief in something greater than oneself became a feeling of paramount importance. She generated in him a certain mixture of conviction and humility, mixed with simplicity. Given the tendency to focus on oneself, such grace can only be welcomed. His ability to joke and his penchant for self-analysis helped him avoid the pretentiousness and pomposity that could afflict even the most famous mind in the world.

“Everyone seriously engaged in science comes to the conviction that the laws of the Universe reveal a spiritual principle that incommensurably exceeds the spiritual capabilities of man.”

Einstein's religious sense of reverence and simplicity also manifested itself in the need for social justice. Even signs of hierarchy or class differences disgusted him, which prompted him to beware of excess, not to be too practical, and to help refugees and the oppressed.

Shortly after his fiftieth birthday, Einstein gave an astonishing interview in which he spoke more openly than ever about his religious views. He was talking to a pompous but charming poet and propagandist named George Sylvester Viereck. Viereck was born in Germany, went to America as a child, and as an adult, wrote tasteless erotic poetry, interviewed great people and talked about his complex love for his homeland.

In his piggy bank he collected so much different people, like Freud, Hitler and the Kaiser, and eventually compiled a book from interviews with them called Glimpses of the Great (“Brief Encounters with the Great”). He managed to get a meeting with Einstein. Their conversation took place in his Berlin apartment. Elsa served raspberry juice and fruit salad, and then they went upstairs to Einstein's office, where no one could disturb them. It is not entirely clear why Einstein decided that Viereck was a Jew. In fact, Viereck proudly traced his ancestry to the Kaiser's family, later became a Nazi admirer, and was jailed in America as a German agitator during World War II.

Viereck first of all asked Einstein whether he considered himself a Jew or a German. “You can be both,” Einstein replied. “Nationalism is a childhood disease, the measles of humanity.”

“Should Jews Assimilate?” “In order to adapt, we Jews were too willing to sacrifice our individuality.”

“To what extent have you been influenced by Christianity?” “As a child, I was taught both the Bible and the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am captivated by the radiant personality of the Nazarene.”

“Do you think Jesus is a historical figure?” - "Undoubtedly! You cannot read the Gospel and not feel the real presence of Jesus. His personality is heard in every word. There are no other myths so full of life.”

"Do you believe in God?" - “I'm not an atheist. This problem is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a child who enters a huge library filled with books in different languages. The child knows that someone must have written these books. But he doesn't know how he managed to do it. He does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child vaguely suspects that there is some mystical order in the arrangement of books, but does not know what. This is how, it seems to me, even the most smart people. We see a wonderfully structured Universe that obeys certain laws, but we only vaguely understand what these laws are.”

“Is this the Jewish idea of God?” - “I am a determinist. I don't believe in free will. Jews believe in free will. They believe that man himself is the creator of his life. This doctrine I reject. In this respect I am not a Jew.”

“Is this Spinoza’s God?” - “I admire Spinoza's pantheism, but even more I appreciate his contribution to modern process knowledge, since he is the first philosopher to consider the soul and body as a single whole, and not as two separate entities."

Where did his ideas come from? “I am quite a master of my craft and can freely use my imagination. Imagination more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination marks the limits of the world."

"Do you believe in immortality?" - "No. One life is enough for me.”

Einstein tried to be clear. This was necessary both for him and for all those who wanted from him to get a simple answer to the question about his faith. Therefore, in the summer of 1930, while on vacation in Kaputta, sailing, he pondered this question that worried him and formulated his creed in the article “What I Believe.” At the end of it he explained what he meant when he said he was religious:

The most beautiful emotion that we are given to experience is a feeling of mystery. It is the fundamental emotion at the origin of all true art and science. Anyone who is unfamiliar with this emotion, who can no longer be surprised, frozen in delight, and experience awe, is as good as dead, he is an extinguished candle. To feel that behind everything that is given to us in sensations, there is something inaccessible to our understanding, whose beauty and majesty we realize only indirectly - this means to be religious. In this, and only in this sense, I am a truly religious person.

Many found that this text made them think, even called them to faith. It has been reprinted many times in different translations. But not surprisingly, it did not satisfy those who wanted a simple, straightforward answer to the question of whether Einstein believed in God. Now the attempt to get Einstein to explain succinctly what he believed has replaced the previous mad rush to get the theory of relativity explained in one sentence.

A banker from Colorado wrote that he had already received an answer from twenty-four Nobel Prize winners about whether they believed in God, and asked Einstein to join them. “I cannot imagine a personal God directly influencing the behavior of an individual or holding judgment over his own creatures,” Einstein wrote in illegible handwriting on this letter. - My religiosity lies in humble admiration for the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend in the world accessible to our knowledge. This deeply emotional conviction of the existence of a higher intelligence revealing itself in an incomprehensible universe constitutes my idea of God.”

Teenage girl, sixth grade student Sunday school in New York, posed the same question in a slightly different way. “Do scientists pray?” - she asked. Einstein took it seriously. “The basis of scientific research is the assumption that everything that happens is determined by the laws of nature, and the same is true in relation to the actions of people,” he explained. “It is therefore difficult to believe that a scientist would be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by prayer, that is, a wish addressed to a supernatural being.”

However, this does not mean that the Almighty does not exist, that there is no spiritual principle superior to us. And Einstein continues to explain to the girl:

Anyone seriously engaged in science comes to the conviction that the laws of the Universe reveal a spiritual principle that incommensurably exceeds the spiritual capabilities of man. In the face of this spirit, we and our humble strengths must feel humble. Thus, the pursuit of science leads to the emergence of a special religious feeling, which in fact differs significantly from the more naive religiosity of other people.

Those who by religiosity understood only faith in a personal God who controls our daily life, believed that Einstein’s idea of an impersonal cosmic spiritual beginning, like his theory of relativity, should be called by its true name. “I have serious doubts that Einstein himself truly understands what he is getting at,” said the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal William Henry O'Connell. But one thing was obvious to him - this is godlessness. “The result of these searches and vague conclusions about time and space is a mask under which hides the terrifying specter of atheism.”

The cardinal's public damnation prompted the prominent head of New York's Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, to send a telegram to Einstein asking bluntly: “Do you believe in God? End. The answer is paid. 50 words." Einstein used only about half of the words given to him. This text is the most famous answer to the question that he was so often asked: “I believe in Spinoza’s God, manifesting himself in all things, subject to the laws of harmony, but not in a God occupied with the fate and affairs of mankind.”

And this answer from Einstein did not satisfy everyone. For example, some religious Jews noted that Spinoza was expelled from the Amsterdam Jewish community for these beliefs; catholic church she also condemned him. “Cardinal O'Connell would have done well not to attack Einstein's theory,” said one Bronx rabbi. “And Einstein would have been better off not announcing his lack of faith in a God who was preoccupied with the destinies and affairs of people. Both took up issues that did not fall under their jurisdiction."

Nevertheless, Einstein's answer satisfied most people, whether they agreed with him or not, because they were able to appreciate what was said. The idea of an impersonal God who does not interfere in the daily lives of people, whose hand is felt in the greatness of the cosmos - component philosophical tradition accepted both in Europe and America. This idea can be found among Einstein's favorite philosophers, and in general it is consistent with the religious ideas of the founding fathers of the American state, such as Jefferson and Franklin.

Some religious people did not recognize Einstein's right to often use the word "God" simply as a figure of speech. Some non-believers felt the same way. He called Him, sometimes quite jokingly, in different ways. He could say both der Herrgott (Lord God) and der Alte (Old Man). But it was not in Einstein’s character to wriggle, adjusting to someone else’s tastes. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Therefore, let us give him his due and take him at his word when he insists, repeating over and over again, that these words are not a simple semantic disguise and that in fact he is not an atheist.

Throughout his life, Einstein consistently denied the accusation of atheism. “There are people who say there is no God,” he told a friend. “But what really irritates me is when people cite me to justify such views.”

Unlike Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell or George Bernard Shaw, Einstein never felt the need to denigrate those who believe in God. Rather, he did not encourage atheists. “What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of complete humility before the secrets of the harmony of the cosmos that are inaccessible to us,” he explained.

"People, vegetables or cosmic dust“, we all dance to an incomprehensible melody, played from afar by an invisible musician.”

In fact, Einstein was more critical not of religious people, but of denouncers of religion who did not suffer from an excess of humility and a sense of awe. “Fanatical atheists,” he explained in one of his letters, “are like slaves who still feel the weight of chains thrown off after a hard struggle. The music of the spheres is inaccessible to these creatures, who call traditional religion the opium of the people.”

Einstein would later discuss the same topic with a US Navy lieutenant whom he had never met. Is it true, asked the sailor, that a Jesuit priest converted you into a believer? This is absurd, Einstein replied. He continued by pointing out that he considered belief in a God who behaves like a father to be the result of "childish analogies." Would Einstein, the sailor asked, allow his answer to be quoted in a dispute with his more religious shipmates? Einstein warned against taking everything too simply. “You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the militant fervor of professional atheists, whose zeal is driven primarily by liberation from the shackles of childhood religious training,” he explained. “I prefer restraint, which corresponds to our weak intellect, which is unable to understand nature, to explain our own existence.”

In Santa Barbara, 1933

How did such an instinctive religious feeling relate to science? For Einstein, the advantage of his faith was precisely that it guided and inspired him, but did not conflict with his scientific work. “Religious cosmic feeling,” he said, “is the most significant and noble motive for scientific work».

Einstein later explained his understanding of the relationship between science and religion at a conference at New York Union Theological Seminary devoted to this issue. The scope of science, he said, is to find out what is the case, but not to assess what one thinks should be the case. Religion has a completely different purpose. But sometimes their efforts add up. “Science can only be created by those who are overwhelmed by the desire for truth and understanding,” he said. “However, it is religion that is the source of this feeling.”

The newspapers covered this speech as the main news, and its laconic conclusion became famous: “This situation can be depicted as follows: science without religion is crippled, religion without science is blind.”

But there is one religious concept, Einstein continued to insist, that science cannot agree with. We are talking about a deity who, at his whim, can interfere with the course of events in the world he created and in the lives of his creatures. “Today, the main source of conflict between religion and science has to do with the idea of a personal God,” he argued. The goal of scientists is to discover the immutable laws that govern reality, and in doing so they must discard the idea that sacred will, or, for that matter, the will of man, can lead to the violation of this universal principle of causality.

Belief in causal determinism, being an integral part scientific worldview Einstein, came into conflict not only with the idea of a personal God. It was, at least in Einstein's opinion, incompatible with the idea of human free will. Although he was a deeply moral man, his belief in strict determinism made it difficult for him to grasp concepts such as moral choice and individual responsibility, which are the basis of most ethical systems.

Generally, both Jewish and Christian theologians believe that people are given free will and that they are responsible for their actions. They are so free that they can even, as the Bible says, flout the instructions of the Lord, although this seems to contradict the belief in an omnipotent and omniscient God.

I don't believe in free will in the philosophical sense at all. Each of us acts not only under the influence external reasons, but also in accordance with internal needs. Schopenhauer's saying: “Man can do as he wishes, but he cannot will as he wishes,” has inspired me since my youth; it constantly served me as a consolation in the face life difficulties, my own and other people and an inexhaustible source of tolerance.

Would you believe it, Einstein was once asked whether people are free in their actions. “No, I’m a determinist,” he replied. - Everything, the beginning as much as the end, is determined by forces that we cannot control. Everything is predetermined for both the insect and the star. People, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all perform a dance to an incomprehensible melody played from afar by an invisible musician.”

These views dismayed some of his friends. For example, Max Born believed that they completely undermine the foundations of human morality. "I can't understand how you combine a completely mechanistic universe and freedom into one whole moral person, he wrote to Einstein. - A completely deterministic world disgusts me. Maybe you are right and the world is exactly as you say. But in at the moment“This doesn’t seem to be the case even in physics, let alone in the rest of the world.”

For Born, the uncertainty of quantum mechanics provided a solution to this dilemma. Like some other philosophers of his time, he seized on the uncertainty inherent in quantum mechanics as an opportunity to get rid of the "contradiction between moral freedom and the strict laws of nature." Einstein, while acknowledging that quantum mechanics cast doubt on strict determinism, replied to Born that he still believed in it, both in human behavior and in the field of physics.

Born explained the disagreement to his rather nervous wife Hedwig, always ready to argue with Einstein. This time she said that, like Einstein, she “cannot believe in a God who plays dice” - in other words, unlike her husband, she rejected the quantum mechanical view of the Universe, based on uncertainty and probability. But, she added, “I also can’t believe that you, as Max told me, believe that your absolute rule of law means everything is predetermined, like whether I’m going to get my child vaccinated.” This would mean, she pointed out, the end of all morality.

On the ocean, in Santa Barbara, 1933

In Einstein's philosophy, the way out of this predicament was as follows. Free will should be seen as something useful, even necessary, for a civilized society, since it is what forces people to accept responsibility for their actions. When a person acts as if he is responsible for his actions, this both psychologically and practically encourages him to behave more responsibly. “I am forced to act as if free will exists,” he explained, “because if I want to live in a civilized society, I must act responsibly.” He was even willing to hold people responsible for everything good or bad they do, as this was both a pragmatic and reasonable approach to life, while still believing that everyone's actions were predetermined. “I know that from a philosopher’s point of view, a murderer is not responsible for his crime,” he said, “but I prefer not to drink tea with him.”

In vindication for Einstein, as for Max and Hedwig Born, philosophers have tried for centuries, sometimes not very cleverly or very successfully, to reconcile free will with determinism and an omniscient God. Regardless of whether Einstein knew something more than others that would have allowed him to cut this Gordian knot, one thing is certain: he was able to formulate and practice strict principles of personal morality. This is true at least when we're talking about about all of humanity, but not always when it comes to members of his family. And philosophizing about these insoluble questions did not hinder him. “The most important desire of man is the struggle for the morality of his behavior,” he wrote to a Brooklyn priest. - Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only the morality of our actions can provide beauty and dignity to life.”

If you want to live a life of benefit to humanity, Einstein believed, the fundamentals of morality must be more important to you than the “exclusively personal.” At times he was cruel to those closest to him, which only means: like all of us humans, he was not without sin. However, more often than most other people, he sincerely, and sometimes this required courage, tried to promote progress and protect individual freedom, believing that this was more important than his own, selfish desires. In general, he was warm-hearted, kind, noble and modest. When he and Elsa left Japan in 1922, he gave her daughters advice on how to live morally. “Be content with little,” he said, “and give others much.”

Albert Einstein: Quotes about Immoral Gods

1. Almighty God cannot judge humanity

Albert Einstein, From My Later Years, 1950

2. I don’t believe in a God who rewards good and punishes evil.

I do not believe in a theological god who rewards good and punishes evil.

3. I don’t believe in a God who has perceptions similar to ours.

4. I can't believe in a God who reflects human weaknesses.

Albert Einstein: Quotes about God Personified and Prayers

Albert Einstein viewed belief in a personal God as a child's fantasy.

Did Albert Einstein believe in God? Many believers cite Einstein as an example of an outstanding scientist who was a believer like them. And this supposedly refutes the idea that science is contrary to religion or that science is atheistic. However, Albert Einstein consistently and unequivocally denied belief in personal gods who answer prayers or take part in human affairs—the very kind of god worshiped by believers who claim that Einstein was one of them.

1.God is the fruit of human weakness

2. Albert Einstein and Spinoza’s God: harmony in the universe

I believe in Spinoza's God, who manifests himself in the ordered harmony of existence, and not in a God who is concerned with human destinies and actions.

Albert Einstein, in response to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein's question, “Do you believe in God?” (quoted in Victor Stenger’s book “Has Science Found God?”)

3. It's not true that I believe in a personal God.

Albert Einstein, Letter to an Atheist (1954), quoted in Albert Einstein as a Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann

4. Gods are created by human imagination

In the early period of the spiritual evolution of the human race, human imagination created gods similar to people themselves - gods to whose will the world around them was obedient.

Albert Einstein, quoted in 2000 Years of Unbelief, James Haught

5. The idea of a personified god is baby talk

6. The idea of a personal god cannot be taken seriously

It seems to me that the idea of a personal god is an anthropological concept that I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine the existence of any will or purpose outside the human sphere... Science has been accused of undermining morality, but this accusation is unfair. A person's ethical behavior should be based on empathy, education, social connections and needs, and there is no need for any religious basis. A person will be on a bad path if his actions are restrained only by the fear of punishment and the hope of reward after death.

7. Faith in God is created by the desire to be guided and loved.

8. Moral issues concern people, not gods.

I cannot imagine a personal god who would have a direct influence on the actions of people, or who would judge the creatures that he himself created. I cannot imagine this, even though modern science has some doubts about mechanistic causation. My religiosity consists in a reverent admiration for that higher spirit which is manifested in the little that we, with our weak and imperfect faculties, can comprehend about the world around us. Morality is of paramount importance, but for us, not for God.

Albert Einstein, quoted in Albert Einstein as a Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann

9. Scientists are not inclined to believe in the power of prayer to supernatural beings.

Albert Einstein, 1936, responding to a child who asked in a letter whether scientists pray. Quoted in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Elena Duke and Banesh Hoffman

10. Few manage to rise above anthropomorphic gods

11. The concept of a personified god is a major source of conflict

12. Divine will cannot be the cause of natural phenomena

The more a person is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the stronger his conviction becomes that next to this ordered regularity there is no place for causes of a different nature. For him, neither human nor divine will will be independent causes of natural phenomena. ...

Albert Einstein, Science and Religion, 1941

Albert Einstein: Quotes on Atheism and Freethinking: Was Einstein an Atheist, a Freethinker?

Albert Einstein didn't believe in any traditional gods, but is that atheism?

1. From the Jesuit point of view, I am an atheist

2. False Bible Claims Have Caused Skepticism and Freethinking

As I read popular science literature, I quickly became convinced that much of what was written in the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a completely fanatical orgy of free thought, to which was added the impression that these lies were deliberately used by the state to fool the youth; it was a crushing experience. The result was a distrust of all authority and a skeptical attitude towards the beliefs inherent in any social environment - an attitude that never left me, although it later softened as a result of a better understanding of cause-and-effect relationships.

Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes, edited by Paul Arthur Schlipp

3. Albert Einstein in defense of Bertrand Russell

4. Few people manage to avoid the prejudices inherent in their environment.

Few people are able to calmly express their views if they diverge from the accepted prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such views.

Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, 1954

5. A person’s value depends on the degree of his freedom from himself

The real value of a person is determined primarily by the extent and sense in which he has achieved liberation from himself.

Albert Einstein, The World as It Seems Me, 1949

6. Non-believers can be just as bigoted as believers.

The fanaticism of an unbeliever is almost as ridiculous to me as the fanaticism of a believer.

Albert Einstein, quoted in Einstein's God - Albert Einstein as a Scientist and as a Jew in Search of a Replacement for a Rejected God, 1997

7. I'm not a professional militant atheist.

Albert Einstein in conversation with Guy Rahner Jr., September 28, 1949, quoted by Michael Gilmore in Skeptic, Vol. 5, No. 2

Albert Einstein: Quotes about Life After Death: Einstein Denied an Afterlife

Albert Einstein denied life after physical death, the possibility of immortality and the presence of a soul

Belief in an afterlife and the existence of the soul are fundamental principles not only of most religions, but also of most spiritualist and paranormal beliefs today. Albert Einstein denied any validity to the belief that we can survive our physical death. Einstein believed that there is no afterlife, and after death there is neither punishment for crimes nor rewards for good behavior. Albert Einstein's denial of the possibility of life after death gives reason to believe that he did not believe in any gods, and stems from his rejection of traditional religion.

1. I cannot imagine a person surviving his physical death.

Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, 1931

2. Weak souls believe in life after death out of fear and selfishness.

3. I don't believe in human immortality

I do not believe in the immortality of man, and I believe that ethics is a purely human matter, behind which there is no supernatural authority.

Quoted in Albert Einstein as a Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann

4. After death there is no reward or punishment

5. Only space is truly immortal

Albert Einstein, from Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask the American Atheists, Madeleine Murray O'Hair

6. The concept of soul is empty and meaningless

Belief in an afterlife and the existence of the soul are fundamental principles not only of most religions, but also of most spiritualist and paranormal beliefs today. Albert Einstein denied any validity to the belief that we can survive our physical death. Einstein believed that there is no afterlife, and after death there is neither punishment for crimes nor rewards for good behavior. Albert Einstein's denial of the possibility of life after death suggests that he did not believe in any gods and is part of his rejection of traditional religions.

Selection of quotes and translation from English by Lev Mitnik