Einstein was - at most - deist and made this very, very explicit a number of times throughout his life. He did, at times, make reference to ‘God’ - most famously in the line “God does not play dice with the Universe” in relation to Bohr (and Plancks) Quantum Theory (and in which case he has been proved wrong) - but Einstein’s “God” bears absolutely no relation to a Theistic God and is, in fact, used as a synonym for “The Universe”. Whenever Einstein speaks of God, what he’s talking about are the fundamental physical principles of the Universe - which he believed to be entirely materialistic. To make any kind of claim that Einstein believed in a personal God is absolutely ridiculous.
“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly.” - Albert Einstein, The Human Side, 1954 (1 year before his death).
“A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” (Religion and Science, New York Times, 1930)
“I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts.” (The World as I See It)
I just think it’s curious that Einstein used the word God, if as you say, he meant “the universe”. That’s not logical.
This is contradicted by one of his famous aphorisms, "What interests me the most is whether God had any choice when He created the universe." ( from memory )
Yeah sorry I STRONGLY disagree with you. That’s B.S. from the Atheist who misquote Einstein. Imagine that???
I read a book that said ONLY in a very short period of his life did Einstein did not believe in a God. As matter of fact he would get upset with Atheist that misquote him about God.
Here are some quotes from Einstein about Atheist.
“In the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support for such views.”
LOL! The above quote is so true. At one small point in Einstein’s life he had a brief period where he was not sure. This is what the Atheist love to quote. In reality Einstein pretty much most of his life had no doubt about God’s existence.
Here is another quote from Einstein about Atheist.
“Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is the same as that of the religious fanatics, and it springs from the same source … They are creatures who can’t hear the music of the spheres.”
One more quote from Einstein about Atheist.
“What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos.”
Here are some more famous Einstein quotes about God.
“I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of that pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?”
“We know nothing about [God, the world] at all. All our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren. Possibly we shall know a little more than we do now. but the real nature of things, that we shall never know, never.”