Eventually people are going to realize that the issue with evolution is that believing in the whole of it requires you to believe G-d does not exist at all and the backlash will intensify. Einstein was not an evolutionist, Newton, if evolution had been as prominent in his time, would not have been an evolutionist, neither would Galileo or Kepler.
freedom462:
"Eventually people are going to realize that the issue with evolution is that believing in the whole of it requires you to believe G-d does not exist at all..." For nearly 100 years the Catholic Church avoided officially condemning evolution theory.
In 1950 Pope Pius XII declared "research and discussions" OK:
"The Church does not forbid that ... research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter."
In 1996, Pope John Paul II said:
"Today... some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis.
In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines.
The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory."
In 2004 a commission headed by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) reported:
"While there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained, there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3.5–4 billion years ago.
Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism.
Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth, while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution"
The Church's stance is that any such gradual appearance must have been guided in some way by God.
The Church also insists that God directly created the human soul.
freedom462: "Einstein was not an evolutionist."
There are no famous quotes from Einstein regarding evolution itself, but there are quotes where he relegates Biblical creation stories to the status of fairy tales.
So, as a scientist, Einstein may have considered evolution theory tentative and even perhaps inadequate, but would certainly not have rejected it in favor of certain literal biblical interpretations.