AdamHWeek8

It’s interesting to read that Einstein had such a varied religious background, with his non-practicing Jewish parents and Catholic/Jewish schooling. I find it very enlightening that Einstein was able to believe in a higher power while doing all of his groundbreaking research. Gerald Holton says in his paper that “at the heart of Einstein's mature identity there developed a fusion of his First and his Second Paradise – into a Third Paradise, where the meaning of a life of brilliant scientific activity drew on the remnants of his fervent first feelings of youthful religiosity.” When his theory on relativity came out it caused quite a commotion in the religious circle. “New York's Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein asked Einstein by telegram: "Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid 50 words." In his response, for which Einstein needed but twenty-five (German) words, he stated his beliefs succinctly: "I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind." The rabbi cited this as evidence that Einstein was not an atheist, and further declared that "Einstein's theory, if carried to its logical conclusion, would bring to mankind a scientific formula for monotheism."” In the later parts of the 1920s Einstein focused on how he could believe in a higher power and also in his revolutionary ideas. Because of his feelings, Einstein developed his own religion, one that allowed extremely close ties with science.

Holton also remarks that Einstein was trying to tie everything in the world together with one theory. “Throughout Einstein's writings, one can watch him searching for that world picture, for a comprehensive Weltanschauung, one yielding a total conception that, as he put it, would include every empirical fact (//Gesamtheit der Erfahrungstatsachen//) – not only of physical science, but also of life.” Generalizing was also another of Einstein’s tricks to make new discoveries. “Writing to Willem de Sitter on November 4, 1916, he confessed: "I am driven by my need to generalize [//mein Verallgemeinerungsbeduerfnis//]." That need, that compulsion, was also deeply entrenched in German culture and resonated with, and supported, Einstein's approach.” Einstein’s main belief in life was that everything should be unified, including all parts of life, such as governments and religions. Peter Galison, Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard, calls Einstein’s and Poincaré’s account of simultaneity "an extraordinary moment when philosophy, physics and technology cross, precisely because of the intersection of three very powerful streams of action and reasoning at the turn of the century." Einstein was able to pull together parts from all areas of life and fuse them together to make great discoveries. This ability was why he ended up as Time’s Person of the Century.