[Jagman]

So then, all this talk about God not rolling dice with the universe was what? Metaphor or crass pandering?

[allmendream]

Einstein would probably most accurately be called a Deist. He did believe in a Creator, just not in any specific theology.

A Deist would be perfectly comfortable saying such things. Ben Franklin who said in his autobiography that he was a “thorough Deist” also said “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”.

[enduserindy]

“I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.” - ALBERT EINSTEIN.

[Zero Sum]

“Einstein, stop telling God what to do!” -Niels Bohr

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

So then, all this talk about God not rolling dice with the universe was what? Metaphor or crass pandering?

Like his idol Ernst Mach, Einstein was a monist. Monism was popularized in Germany by Ernst Haeckel, but it has deeper roots (Oken). Monism is basically a German form of mystical raving atheism. All that blather about the unity of nature, Goethe, and Spinoza, is typical monist tripe. Ernst Mach even joined Haeckel's monist church and wrote up a particularly embarrassing page about it in his (otherwise mostly excellent) history of mechanics. There is some evidence that Einstein grew out of this as he got older, but it's vague.