Personal reflection and self-assessment

Personal Reflection

the writings of albert einstein and bertrand russell have never been extremely religious in the traditional sense, but on the other hand, I have always believed in some sort of God who created the Universe and who monitors our lives on Earth and listens to us when we need to talk. I figured that God listened equally to everybody, regardless of what faith someone chose to define his relationship with God, as long as we are appropriately respectful and thankful. As far as attending religious services, it seemed fairly obvious to me that whatever God was responsible for our being here, he (or she) cared more about how morally we lived our lives with respect to other people (and any other life forms capable of experiencing pain) than he cared about what religious rituals we performed..

Last year, I happened to notice a book sale at a local library and I browsed the tables. One old book (1950) caught my eye, either because I recognized the name Bertrand Russell as a famous writer or because of the title, Unpopular Essays. Since the book was only fifty cents, I bought it and found that several chapters about classical philosophy complemented my humanities courses and that I really enjoyed the explanations about history and human nature. Then, I got to chapters called an Outline of Intellectual Rubbish and Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind. Even though I am not religious, it still surprised me a little to read Russell's harsh criticism about Christianity, but I was genuinely shocked to read Russell's explanation of the belief in any God as "rubbish."

While I agreed with much of what Russell wrote about religious dogmatism, I wondered how such an intelligent and educated man supposed the Universe and the millions of life forms on this planet alone could have come to be without someone to create them. Then, I came across Russell's explanation that he too once shared the same belief until he encountered the question, "who made God?" Russell phrased his refutation of the idea of God very eloquently, but never explained anything more about how we got here without any God. Then, in one of the last chapters, Eminent Men I have Known, Russell mentioned Albert Einstein, and it occurred to me that Einstein believed in God, because I had heard, at least several times in my life, that Albert Einstein said "God doesn't play dice with the Universe" and also, that he had suggested that the complexity of the human eye was evidence of God's creation. I Googled Albert Einstein and found, to my surprise, that Albert Einstein wrote quite a few books, about his personal beliefs, not just about science. I ordered two, Albert Einstein: The Human Side, and Ideas and Opinions.

Expecting to find a brilliant explanations proving God's existence, what I found instead had a profound effect on my personal beliefs and changed much of what I used to assume had to be true. In the Human Side, I discovered the following passage on p.43, where, in response to a letter he received in 1957, Einstein wrote the following:

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. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it"

In Ideas and Opinions, Einstein had included a chapter titled the Meaning of Life, and Science and Religion. He wrote:

During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image, who, by the operation of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate, to influence the phenomenal world. Man sought to alter the disposition of these gods in his own favor by means of magic and prayer. The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of the old concept of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to their Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes."

Even though it seemed Einstein was writing more about traditional religious ritualism, I realized that the last line of the passage also referred to my type of belief in a higher power, but what he wrote next really challenged my previous concept about God directly: "[I have] no use for the religion of fear and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes is inconceivable to [me] for the simple reason that a man's actions are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in God's eyes he cannot be responsible any more than an inanimate object is responsible for the motions it undergoes. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education and social ties, and needs. No religious basis is necessary."

Both Einstein and Russell went on in some detail about how Meaning in human life comes only from (1) living morally in so far as that means treating others kindly, and (2) doing whatever one can to help others in life and contribute to social welfare in some way. I have to admit that part of me still wonders whether there is anybody "up there" observing me, but after reading more of what these two brilliant authors wrote about God and Morality in human life, I have decided that it doesn't really matter, because everything that Einstein and Russell wrote about morality in human life was very similar to what most traditional religions tell us how to live, except, of course, for the part about God being a figment of human imagination. I am still not 100% sure about what I believe, but I admit I am now leaning toward Einstein's view, which he expressed in one of the most eloquent passages I have an ever read: