Why Einstein Believed in God
‘What one man calls God, another calls the law of physics’ — Nikola Tesla
A few days ago, a fellow Medium-ite reached out to me. After briefly showering my work with praise, he got down to business.
“Dear Genius, if you’ll answer this,” he wrote, “I’ll be forever grateful. My question is this: If the scientific method can’t prove God’s existence, then why’d Einstein believe in God?”
I replied.
Minutes later he wrote back, expressing his gratitude. He ended by asking if he could repost the response on Medium or, maybe, I can write an article about it.
Ahh, he had me at hello!
I. I’m Better at Checkers Than Chess
Checkers and chess are played on the same gameboard. But checkers is simple. Chess is hard. I prefer checkers.
Life is hard. Truth is simple. Perhaps this explains why Einstein once called genius the art of “making complex ideas simple, not making simple ideas complex.”
Chess is hard. I prefer checkers. And so, whenever confronted with complex questions, I usually glance at ol’ Einstein’s notes. After all, his name is synonymous with genius. Literally.
Quite simply, Einstein’s mind mastered simplifying complex ideas. Hence he was a mastermind.
Just as true hoopers know Michael Jordan’s athletic genius is unparalleled in the game of basketball, true students of life know — Einstein’s g factor (general intelligence) is peerless in the Game of Life.
Fortunately for us, because writing is nothing but thinking on paper and talking merely an instance of thinking out loud, as Descartes once put it: reading great books is like chatting with history’s greatest minds.
In short, let’s briefly see why genius personified believed in a higher power.
II. Einstein Answers the God Question
One morning while at his Berlin home, Einstein received an urgent telegram. It was from Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein.
“Do you believe in God?” Rabbi Goldstein wrote. Apparently he expressed concern that Einstein — history’s most famous scientist— had been somewhat undermining religion.
Ahem, though Rabbi Goldstein expected an answer long and sour, Einstein kept it short and sweet:
“I believe in Spinoza’s God . . .”
Bingo!
For those initiated into the mysteries, “Spinoza’s God” is merely a code-word for a mathematical theology. Perhaps the mathematical physicist Lord Kelvin best summed up Einstein’s view when he called “mathematics the only true metaphysics.”
Perhaps there’s only one truth, though more remakes of it exist than the Beatles’ “Yesterday.”
What Einstein loved most about Spinoza was this: of all the philosophers, he was the first to take the Father of Modern Science seriously. That is,
“To understand the Universe, you must understand the language in which it’s written: the language of Mathematics.”
— Galileo
Because this is a uni-, not multiverse, and the prefix uni- simply means oneness, what Spinoza essentially proved was it’s impossible for anything to exist aside from the “One.”
As you are set to see, there’s a reason Einstein wrote this:
Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe — a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.
III. Mathematics = Metaphysics
Dear Reader,
“You take the blue pill, the story ends.” I’ll abruptly end this piece and you’ll “wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.”
Ah, but if “you take the red pill, you stay in wonderland,” and I get to show you how deep the metaphysical rabbit hole goes.
Abracadabra!
“Sir, ever seen ‘Alice in Wonderland’?” Pandora asked.
The Teacher thought better of dismissing his precocious pupil. “Of course! The guy you know as Lewis Carroll, before adopting that pen name, was the logician Charles Dodgson.”
“Well, sir, remember when the White Queen asked Alice, ‘Can you do addition?’ and then the Queen added, ‘What’s one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?’ ”
“Point well taken,” the Teacher said. “Never heard n + 1 expressed so blatantly.”
— excerpt from my Pure Mathematics Code
A great Japanese mathematician named Oka Kiyoshi, whose death-day happens to be my birthday, called the number one “dangerous.” As for danger, E.T. Bell called obvious — “the most dangerous word in mathematics.”
Perhaps most people take it for granted over half the world is either Christian or Muslim. And the foundation of both belief systems is the sacred Torah (first five books of the Bible).
Perhaps it’s no coincidence history’s most celebrated religious figure (Jesus of Nazareth) and its most famous scientist (Einstein) both hailed from the same rich Jewish tradition.
For above all, at the very heart of the world’s three great Abrahamic religions (see Law of Three) lies The Shema:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is ONE” — Deuteronomy 4
Again, the basis of Christianity, Islam and Judaism consists not of some bearded deity in the sky…
…The DNA of these belief systems consists not of man-made descriptions ranging from “a jealous God” to “Allah understands our prayers,” or countless other characteristics which a human-being attributes to a transcendental being.
Again: God = ONE
Indeed, mathematics is the only true metaphysics because reality is, um, metaphysical … ultimately. Or as Einstein once remarked:
“The more I learn of physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.”
“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of words.” Armed with the Socratic method, it’s apparent why the root meaning of Universe lies in its prefix.
Because uni- simply means oneness, the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson noted science treats all life as one. Indeed, from Aardvark to Zucchini — every life form expresses one principle.
Which principle?
This principle:
If everyONE lives ONE life and shares ONE love in ONE world … there can only be ONE being.
Bingo!
This principle of oneness is the Soul of religion. This principle of oneness is the DNA of science. This principle of oneness explains why Einstein believed in a transcendental reality.
Yet again, to attribute any character to the proper noun “God” that falls outside the definition of number one is to stray from mathematics. And metaphysics too. Ultimately. The result is poetry, allegory and myth.
IV. The God Number
“And what is the greatest number? Number one.”
— David Hume
Let the priest, wearing a white clerical collar, preach why one “God cannot be created or destroyed.” Excellent!
Let the physicist, wearing a white lab coat, experiment until proving why one “Energy cannot be created or destroyed.” Wonderful!
Let the mathematician scribble on a white board how number theory defines the number one as being “neither prime nor composite,” i.e., in the number world — that which is one “cannot be created or destroyed.” Dazzling!
In each instance, is it not apparent why Bertrand Russell defined mathematics as the art of repeating the same thing using different words?
“Every good mathematician is at least half a philosopher,” said Frege, “and every good philosopher at least half a mathematician.” This explains why in the West, the first mathematician and first philosopher was the same person. Thales of Miletus.
The mathematician can’t account for why the number one is neither prime nor composite, which disqualifies it from being a “natural number.” This “strange” number nevertheless serves as the DNA of the primes and composites.
Think about that one for a sec. …
“One,” then, is a “supernatural number,” if I may coin such a term. No, wait, promise I can do better:
The number one = The God Number
Bingo!
Perhaps this explains why for thousands of years the world’s first religion, Hinduism, has shouted from the Vedas why Brahmin (one ultimate reality) can’t be known intellectually but rather can be realized by everyone.
Quite simply, the human mind can’t actually grasp the notion of “one.” Our comprehension derives solely from relation — e.g., this is big because that’s “small” … that was in the past because this happens “now.” And so on.
“The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions,” Einstein scoffed, “so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?”
V. Eliminate Impossible → Truth Remains
“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
— Arthur Conan Doyle
It’s impossible to divide what is indivisible. After all, whatever’s indivisible can’t be separated.
It’s impossible to break up and separate into pieces what can’t be separated. The Universe, however, appears to be split up into one billion galaxies. As for our one galaxy, it alone consists of one billion separate planets.
Ahem, think about it — that’s “one and one and one and…” but the one “cannot be created or destroyed.”
But again, it’s impossible to divide what is indivisible. Ah, fortunately for us — once we’ve “eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Checkmate!
If the only possible way one Universe ballooned from a singularity (one point) was growth via addition, ahem, did not the queen of common sense wake up Alice, who beforehand had been lost in Wonderland?
How?
The queen noted that “growth via addition” is merely shorthand for “one + one + one …” onto infinity. Successor function. Ah, but there’s one slight problem: number one is indivisible!
In Spinoza’s philosophy, Einstein glimpsed the true ontological argument unmasked.
(Note: onto- “being” + -logical “derivation” = ontological)
As for this notion of “being,” ahem, may I poetically say it again: if everyone lives one life and shares one love in one world … there can only be one being.
In Spinoza’s system, Einstein realized the very numbers with which we count can’t even account for the one number apart from which there can be no, um, counting.
Or as Einstein would later quip:
“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”
VI. The One and the Many
In history’s most famous equation, Einstein merely noted this one, universal “energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another.”
History’s most famous equation tells us the Universe runs on this one energy. And because such energy can only change forms, here lies the One (e) disguised as the Many (mc2) — everything we see, hear and touch.
“Concerning matter, we’ve been all wrong…” Einstein confessed. “Matter is spirit reduced to a point of visibility. There is no matter.”
There was a Big Bang of cheers when physics first extrapolated the growth of a Universe from one indivisible point, by using Einstein’s general relativity.
(Studio applause.)
But, but … for some reason, only a few whispers could be heard when Einstein reminded us that “nothing happens until something moves.”
At the start, which “something” moved?
Perhaps the great physicist and mathematician James Jeans somewhat answered the riddle when he called “the life of the universe” nothing but “manifestations of [one] energy masquerading in various forms.”
Perhaps once again Einstein proves why a “genius” merely learns what people Knew yesterday, removes the letter “K,” and then repackages it as new today!
It was Einstein’s favorite philosopher, after all, who first bridged the gap between Western and Eastern thought. Schopenhauer then concluded those meditative yogis of the Far East had it right all along.
“All this is Brahman. That [Brahman] is one, without a second,” reads the Upanishads.
Yoga (‘union with the One’) not only serves as Hinduism’s one goal but as any philosopher of religion will confess — such oneness comprises the one great truth of religion.
That is to say (in chronological order):
“The real yogi, with all passions subdued, is ONE with Brahman” — Lord Krishna
“Here, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is ONE” — Moses
“Heaven means to be ONE with God” — Confucius
“If you open yourself, you are ONE with the Tao, and can embody it completely” — Lao Tzu
“The end of life is to be like [ONE with] God” — Socrates
“My Father and I are ONE” — Jesus Christ
“The ONEness of Allah” — Prophet Muhammad
In short, to believe in science is to believe in mathematics — the very language of science. And because the number one is to mathematics what light is to Sun, what here is to Now, it’s no wonder history’s greatest scientist…
…the very genius responsible for discovering gravity and calculus concluded:
“He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in [one] God; but he who really thinks has to believe in [one] God.”
— Sir Isaac Newton
VII. The Takeaway
Before becoming a philosopher, Nietzsche was a philologist. And as a philosopher with a background in philology (study of ancient languages), Nietzsche fully understood what the world calls “holy books” and “scientific theories” inherently amount to symbolism.
These words you’re now reading are mere symbols … symbols designed to represent reality, not reality itself. Perhaps this explains why computing defines language as a “system of symbols.”
Nietzsche figured out language is nothing but “a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms and anthropomorphisms.” As for anthropomorphism, it was this “anthropomorphic character of their conception of God” which so deeply annoyed Einstein.
His solution?
“But there is a third stage of religious experience,” he said, “I shall call it cosmic religious feeling.”
“The beginning of wisdom is a definition of words [symbols] …”
Perhaps in coming generations, we’ll realize these various symbols called “God” and “Nature” and “Universe” and “Energy” amount to instances of saying hello and hola and bonjour and ciao.
“God is not He who is,” said Spinoza, “but That which is.” Or as Jesus of Nazareth put it:
“God is Spirit.”
“Spirit” is invisible and therefore indivisible.
The number one is indivisible.
Bingo!
What Einstein’s scientific eye recognized as one “spirit, [which] is manifest in the laws of the Universe,” Jesus — who strove to embody the character of that one spirit — described It as manifest in the character of his consciousness.
Or “Christ Consciousness” for shorthand.
Perhaps tomorrow’s exposure to mathematical metaphysics or true Religious-Science will serve to reveal why every religion preaches the Golden Rule.
It’ll then become clear why the Nazarene preached “turn the other cheek.” After all, only a fool intentionally slaps his face with his own hand.
No wonder Socrates concluded “sin” comes from partial vision … a sort of blindness that prevents us from seeing the true target. Such insight reveals why a Buddhist monk sweeps the ground to ensure he avoids squashing an insect.
Pure Being disguised as various forms of being, from aardvark-being to zebra-being, reveals the heart of the “Good News.” Hence the wiser we become, the more we’ll avoid needlessly killing animals or plants.
Indeed, enlightenment's true aim isn’t to realize your unity with everything but to realize the fact — you are everything.
“Our separation from each other is an optical illusion,” Einstein said. Indeed, if by chance you were to stroll a New York City sidewalk with me and overhear a homeless fella ask us for change, please don’t be alarmed if I do this:
Abruptly stop in my tracks, crouch down, lock eyes with the fella and remind him why — the true CHANGE you seek, dear brother, is to CHANGE the way you look at things, and then the things you look at will CHANGE. Now, take this CHANGE (few bucks) and vow to embody that Force which sleeps within every man, woman and child!
If you want love, give love. … After all, if all is but the One disguised as the Many, what one man calls a “bum begging for change,” another calls temporarily experiencing himself disguised in another human form.
When I occasionally write pieces such as this to you, dear reader, I’m inherently writing to myself. I am YOU and YOU are me — the uniquely colored and differing gendered costumes notwithstanding.
“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all,” Einstein whispers from the grave. “They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.”
In short, given the extent to which I, a mere dwarf, have stood on the giant’s shoulders to glimpse the Heaven on Earth Code, it’s only right Einstein closes the show:
