[spunkets]

"And whether or not a constant is requisite in todays cosmology says nothing about AE's state of mind does it?"

The constant is always there and must be assigned a value to get an answer. DeSitter's is an initial value problem, not a boundary value problem. Einstein was an honest scientist, he doesn't stick philosophical value in his eqs. Not even his QM calcs and models.

[jwalsh07]

You have to be open to the possibility that he did just that because he personally referred to it as his greatest blunder.

[grey_whiskers]

Einstein was an honest scientist, he doesn't stick philosophical value in his eqs. Not even his QM calcs and models.

According to populist accounts, though, he sure mouthed off about it a lot, e.g. the famous

"God does not play dice with the Universe."

Of course, no one then went on to ask whether God ever loaded the dice, or kept a spare set, or...

Cheers!