Childhood
Becoming a Freethinker and a Scientist
Religious Concepts
On Ego, Consciousness, and “Eternal Life”
Science and Religion
Religion and Science: Irreconcilable?
A Conversation with Gustav Bucky
Morals
Beliefs
Short Comments on Einstein's Faith
Miscellaneous
Short Comments on Einstein's Faith
Excerpted from Calaprice pp. 145 - 161
Einstein's Religious Feeling
My feeling is religious insofar as I am imbued with tile consciousness of the insufficiency of the human mind to understand more deeply the harmony of the Universe which we try to formulate as "laws of nature."
— Letter to Beatrice Frohlich, December 17, 1952; Einstein Archive 59-797
Agnosticism
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 works on the basis of reward and punishment.
— Letter to M. Berkowitz, October 25, 1950; Einstein Archive 59-215
A Religious Nonbeliever
I am a deeply religious nonbeliever.... This is a somewhat new kind of religion.
— Letter to Hans Muehsam March 30, 1954; Einstein Archive 38-434
Einstein's Religion
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive With our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible Universe, forms my idea of God.
— Quoted in the New York Times obituary April 19, 1955