Einstein's Beliefs

It was said that the red shift changed Einstein's beliefs. Edwin Hubble showed Einstein that the universe was not a steady state, perpetual existence. That the universe is expanding and therefore had a beginning. Einstein had two reactions. First that his equations had been correct, without need for the cosmic fudge factor he had thought necessary to insert. Second, the universe had been created.

Albert Einstein always came to his own conclusions, and this trait held for religions too. In the article by Guardian science correspondent James Randerson, both sides of Einstein's belief system come to light. In a previously unknown 1954 letter to a religious author, Einstein waxed more than skeptical. His words are downright cynical. He rejects God, the Bible, and the separateness of the Jewish peoples, of which he counts himself one.

Yet, as the article correctly shows, Einstein had generally shown a variety of beliefs. What he didn't seem to like was the use of either religion or of atheism as tool for abuse, as a weapon. One of my favorite Einsteinisms is also quoted in this evenhanded treatment by Randerson:

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

Why should this be so? Why should the product of a cosmic explosion be able to question and perhaps ultimately come to understand the entire process? What Einstein knew is that he didn't know, and couldn't, the answer to this conundrum. And that is one of the things that sets him apart from modern atheo-scientists.