[MD] Einstein in Time

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

All,

There is a well-written piece on Einstein in Time Magazine this week, "Einstein
and Faith"
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1607298,00.html?xid=rss-topstories)

While I think much of the article touches on topics relevant (and sympathetic)
to the MOQ, the following caught my eye.

"Another guest stepped in and similarly disparaged religion. Belief in God, he
insisted, was likewise a superstition. At this point the host tried to silence
him by invoking the fact that even Einstein harbored religious beliefs. "It
isn't possible!" the skeptical guest said, turning to Einstein to ask if he
was, in fact, religious. "Yes, you can call it that," Einstein replied calmly.
"Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will
find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains
something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond
anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact,
religious."

The contrarianism of Einstein is also discussed, suggesting that "His cocky
contempt for authority led him to question received wisdom in ways that
well-trained acolytes in the academy never contemplated. And as for his slow
verbal development, he thought that it allowed him to observe with wonder the
everyday phenomena that others took for granted. ... It may seem logical, in
retrospect, that a combination of awe and rebellion made Einstein exceptional
as a scientist."

But the article is quick to point out that this alone does not account for
Eintstein's successes. "But the awe part comes in his 50s when he settled into
a deism based on what he called the "spirit manifest in the laws of the
universe" and a sincere belief in a "God who reveals Himself in the harmony of
all that exists.""

Einstein also had talked about "nationalism", saying "Nationalism is an
infantile disease, the measles of mankind." (Were we only in the presence of
more Einsteins today), and (relevant to Case's and other's discussions) on
"Free Will" Einstein had said point blank "I am a determinist. I do not believe
in free will." (That really suprised me, shortly thereafter Einstein speaks
kindly for "Spinoza's pantheism", and I think it was Platt(?) who had mentioned
pantheism on the list in the past.)

I'll just close this post with a comment Einstein made to clarify the one I
opened this post with.

"It concluded with an explanation of what he meant when he called himself
religious: "The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It
is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and
science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and
stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that
behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds
cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is
religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious
man.""

Dynamic Quality?