[PatrickHenry]

Brilliant physicist, amateurish theologian.

He was even worse in economics. The guy was a socialist. Anyway, everyone has thoughts on theology. It's always interesting to see what a really intelligent person has to say -- for whatever it may be worth. We get more than enough strident theological proclamations by people who have no clue about anything.

[CobaltBlue]

To me, Einstein's theology wasn't amateurish at all. Painfully honest.

God is unknowable. That's the honest truth.

You won't understand God by reading a book. That's the honest truth.

Put down the books and look around you, look outside, then you'll begin to understand God.

Einstein was able to prove things about physics that persuaded him that the universe moves according to predictable and knowable forces. That told him a lot about God, and it tells us all a lot about God.

[FireTrack]

"The guy was a socialist."

From 1933 until 1955, the Federal Bureau of Investigation compiled a 2,000-page file on Albert Einstein, hoping to "destroy" his immense stature by linking him to Soviet espionage activities. At one point, not long before the scientist's death, a serious attempt was made to have him deported. This alarming campaign--responsible in large part for Einstein's exclusion from the Manhattan Project--is the subject of Fred Jerome's The Einstein File. Einstein's disloyalty, in the FBI's view, was clearly evidenced by his adamant political stances. He was a socialist, a pacifist (though he advocated war with Germany), and an outspoken foe of McCarthyism, nuclear war, and racism. Jerome's skillful narrative weaves the file's hateful (and often ludicrously inaccurate) entries with American political history, creating an invaluable context for both Einstein's views and the FBI's actions. Further, Jerome points to the more recent "sanitizing" of Einstein, from angry activist to "genial, absent-minded professor." This is a fascinating, compelling tale, one that reads like the strangest of fictions. --H. O'Billovich

Here is the link to the book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312288565/ref=pm_dp_ln_b_6/002-7865334-7653614?v=glance&s=books&vi=reviews

[hosepipe]

[ for whatever it may be worth. We get more than enough strident theological proclamations by people who have no clue about anything. ]

Or lots of clues about everything..

[spinestein]

[He was even worse in economics. The guy was a socialist.]



I admire Einstein most for his willingness to change his mind when the evidence warranted it. He abandoned his long held belief in a static universe when it was demonstrated that the universe was expanding, and he abandoned his pacifist views when he realized that the Nazis were not likely to be reasoned out of committing genocide.

He also learned to respect much of American entrepreneurial ism in his later years after he spent some time here.