Fly-By Einstein Quotes

It is popular to quote Albert Einstein on various subjects, and to take the quotes as a firm position Einstein might have taken on some philosophical position such as religion, God, etc. But Einstein’s thoughts varied across the years and across his moods. The following quote is taken as proof that Einstein was, at a minimum, agnostic, and is used as a single Appeal to Authority Fallacy.

This quote from Einstein flying around the internet is actually taken from a book by Christopher Hitchens, but credited to a letter to M. Berkowitz, 10-25-1950, in turn credited to a book by Calaprice, “The Expanded Quotable Einstein”, Princeton University Press, 2000:

“My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who woks on the basis of reward and punishment.”

But Einstein also wrote,

“For the scientific method can teach us nothing else beyond how facts are related to, and conditioned by, each other. The aspiration toward such objective knowledge belongs to the highest of which man is capable, and you will certainly not suspect me of wishing to belittle the achievements and the heroic effort of man in the sphere. Yet it is equally clear that knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. One can have the clearest and most complete knowledge of what is, and yet not be able to deduct from that what should be the goal of our human aspirations. Objective knowledge provides us with powerful instruments for the achievements of certain ends, but the ultimate goal itself and the longing to reach it must come from another source. And it is hardly necessary to argue for the view that our existence and our activity acquire meaning only by the setting up of such a goal and of corresponding values. The knowledge of truth as such is wonderful, but it is so little capable of acting as a guide that it cannot prove even the justification and the value of the aspiration towards that very knowledge of truth. Here we face, therefore the limits of the purely rational conception of our existence.”

“But it must not be assumed that intelligent thinking can play no part in the formation of the goal and of ethical judgments. When someone realizes that for the achievement of an end certain means would be useful, the means itself thereby becomes and end. Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelation of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations, and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to perform in the social life of man. And if one asks whence derives the authority of such fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and justified merely by reason, one can only answer: they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the conduct and aspirations and judgments of the individuals; they are there that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find justification for their existence. They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the medium of powerful personalities. One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly.”“The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition.”

Albert Einstein; “Out Of My Later Years”; Wing Books, Random House; copyright 1956, written in 1950, revised in 1956; pg 20,21.

In the same work, Einstein continues,

"On the other hand, representatives of science have often made an attempt to arrive at fundamental judgments with respect to values and ends on the basis of the scientific method, and this way have set themselves in opposition to religion. These conflicts have all sprung from fatal errors….
…science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration towards truth and understanding This source of feeling however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is , comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

Albert Einstein; “Out Of My Later Years”; Wing Books, Random House; copyright 1956, written in 1950, revised in 1956; pg 24.

This last famous quote is followed by still another quirky turn in Einstein’s mood. He proceeds to call for the abolition of a “personal God”. And then in yet another seeming reversal he says,

“But whoever has undergone the intense experience of successful advances made in this domain, is moved by the profound reverence for the rationality made manifest in existence. By way of understanding he achieves a far reaching emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes and desires, and thereby attains that humble attitude of mind towards the grandeur of reason incarnate in existence, and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man.”

Albert Einstein; “Out Of My Later Years”; Wing Books, Random House; copyright 1956, written in 1950, revised in 1956; pg 27.

There are other quotes similar to this one. There is no doubt that Einstein had religious doubt of the ecclesiastical variety; there is also no doubt that Einstein was in no way a Philosophical Materialist. So using Einstein for some sort of philosophical agenda is bound to fail. Especially when encountering someone who has actually read what he had to say.

[All emphasis in BOLD was added by me].