Albert Einstein’s Thoughts on the Meaning of Life

C

Cypress

Well-known member

Albert Einstein’s Surprising Thoughts on the Meaning of Life​

Albert Einstein shared his thoughts on the meaning of life and his own spiritual views.

Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, influencing scientific thought immeasurably. He was also not shy about sharing his wisdom about other topics, writing essays, articles, letters, giving interviews and speeches. His everyday-life opinions on social and intellectual issues that do not come from the world of physics give an insight into the spiritual and moral vision of the scientist, offering much to take to heart.

The collection of essays and ideas “The World As I See It” gathers Einstein’s thoughts from before 1935, when he was as the preface says “at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age”.

In the book, Einstein comes back to the question of the purpose of life, and what a meaningful life is, on several occasions. In one passage, he links it to a sense of religiosity.

“What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it many any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life,” wrote Einstein.
Click to expand...
Did Einstein himself hold religious beliefs? Raised by secular Jewish parents, he had complex and evolving spiritual thoughts. He generally seemed to be open to the possibility of the scientific impulse and religious thoughts coexisting in people’s lives.

The collection of essays and ideas “The World As I See It” gathers Einstein’s thoughts from before 1935, when he was as the preface says “at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age”.

In the book, Einstein comes back to the question of the purpose of life, and what a meaningful life is, on several occasions. In one passage, he links it to a sense of religiosity.

“What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it many any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life,” wrote Einstein.
Click to expand...
Did Einstein himself hold religious beliefs? Raised by secular Jewish parents, he had complex and evolving spiritual thoughts. He generally seemed to be open to the possibility of the scientific impulse and religious thoughts coexisting in people’s lives.
Some (including the scientist himself) have called Einstein’s spiritual views pantheism, largely influenced by the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Pantheists see God as existing but abstract, equating all of reality with divinity. They also reject a specific personal God or a god that is somehow endowed with human attributes.

In another passage from 1934, Einstein talks about the value of a human being, reflecting a Buddhist-like approach:

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self”.
Click to expand...
This theme of liberating the self to glimpse life’s true meaning is also echoed by Einstein later on, in a 1950 letter to console a grieving father Robert S. Marcus:

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”
Click to expand...



continued

bigthink.com

Albert Einstein's Surprising Thoughts on the Meaning of Life

Albert Einstein shared his thoughts on the meaning of life and his own spiritual views.
bigthink.com bigthink.com
 
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.

-- Albert Einstein, 1954, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press

“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.”

Albert Einstein in a letter to M. Berkowitz, October 25, 1950; Einstein Archive 59-215; from Alice Calaprice, ed., The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 216.
 
Ross Dolan said:
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.

-- Albert Einstein, 1954, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press

“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.”

Albert Einstein in a letter to M. Berkowitz, October 25, 1950; Einstein Archive 59-215; from Alice Calaprice, ed., The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 216.
Click to expand...
Yes, for sure Einstein was crystal clear that he didn't buy into the Judeo-Christian and Islamic concept of a God of Abraham.
 
Cypress said:
Yes, for sure Einstein was crystal clear that he didn't buy into the Judeo-Christian and Islamic concept of a God of Abraham.
Click to expand...
but he did put valuing life as the ultimate meaning of life.

did you read your own stuff?

that puts you nihilists/moral relativists on team dumb dumb
 
Cypress said:
Yes, for sure Einstein was crystal clear that he didn't buy into the Judeo-Christian and Islamic concept of a God of Abraham.
Click to expand...

Blackwater Lunchbreak said:
but he did put valuing life as the ultimate meaning of life.

did you read your own stuff?
Click to expand...
That's not a uniquely Christian value.

I wrote that Einstein didn't buy into a personal Abrahamic god.

Write responses to what I actually wrote, not to what you wish I wrote.
 
Blackwater Lunchbreak said:
but he did put valuing life as the ultimate meaning of life.

did you read your own stuff?

that puts you nihilists/moral relativists on team dumb dumb
Click to expand...

Why on earth would you call @Cypress a "nihilist"???? If anything he's closer to a religious person than any agnostic I've ever heard talk. He is constantly marveling at the "purpose" or "meaning" of life and the universe.

And why "moral relativist"???? He's not a moral relativist...he seems to believe in some universal basis for morality (however his version of "universal" does seem limited to "humans" but that's another discussion). How could he be a relativist of any sort????

If you are going to throw around accusation about Cypress make sure it's accurate. He's a liar, he's got the moral code of a hog, he's driven mostly by hate and rage, he's the most fragile ego imaginable, and he desperately seeks validation for his pseudo-intellectualism (probably springing from some massive chip on his shoulder about education).

But a nihilist and moral relativist he does NOT appear to be.
 
Obtenebrator said:
Why on earth would you call @Cypress a "nihilist"???? If anything he's closer to a religious person than any agnostic I've ever heard talk. He is constantly marveling at the "purpose" or "meaning" of life and the universe.

And why "moral relativist"???? He's not a moral relativist...he seems to believe in some universal basis for morality (however his version of "universal" does seem limited to "humans" but that's another discussion). How could he be a relativist of any sort????

If you are going to throw around accusation about Cypress make sure it's accurate. He's a liar, he's got the moral code of a hog, he's driven mostly by hate and rage, he's the most fragile ego imaginable, and he desperately seeks validation for his pseudo-intellectualism (probably springing from some massive chip on his shoulder about education).

But a nihilist and moral relativist he does NOT appear to be.
Click to expand...
but he's not spiritual, he's a gatekeeper of religion to make sure it stays divisive and violent.

that's what masons do.
 
Cypress said:
That's not a uniquely Christian value.

I wrote that Einstein didn't buy into a personal Abrahamic god.

Write responses to what I actually wrote, not to what you wish I wrote.
Click to expand...
I didn't say it was uniquely Christian, dumbass.

there are moral people of all faiths.



t
 
Blackwater Lunchbreak said:
but he's not spiritual,
Click to expand...

Disagree. He seems very spiritual. I think it appeals to the mores mushy parts of his reasoning. It allows for the "mystery" to be around so he can create new and exciting posts about "intelligence in the universe" etc.

Blackwater Lunchbreak said:
he's a gatekeeper of religion to make sure it stays divisive and violent.
Click to expand...

Nah, he's more a defender of religious thought. While he is clear to say he aligns with no religion (or at least he's unwilling to 'fess up to it) and he does always claim to be an "agnostic" (we can debate how much of that position he actually understands) but I wouldn't say he's wanting to keep religion divisive and violent.

That's a job for the believers.

Blackwater Lunchbreak said:
that's what masons do.
Click to expand...

What is it with you and the Masons? Did a Freemason hurt you somehow?
 
Obtenebrator said:
Disagree. He seems very spiritual. I think it appeals to the mores mushy parts of his reasoning. It allows for the "mystery" to be around so he can create new and exciting posts about "intelligence in the universe" etc.



Nah, he's more a defender of religious thought. While he is clear to say he aligns with no religion (or at least he's unwilling to 'fess up to it) and he does always claim to be an "agnostic" (we can debate how much of that position he actually understands) but I wouldn't say he's wanting to keep religion divisive and violent.

That's a job for the believers.



What is it with you and the Masons? Did a Freemason hurt you somehow?
Click to expand...
he's not.

he just comes on thread to reinforce divisive orthodoxy to keep religions divisive and violent.

Masons were infiltrated by the Bavarian illumnati, which was itself created by central bankers, schismatic Jews, and jesuits.

they've been assholes ever since.

there is enlightenment, but masons lost the franchise.
 
Obtenebrator said:
VERY good advice. Try it some time.
Click to expand...
What's the point in reading and engaging you?
I am here to debate people.

I am not here to debate Google.

Your MO is to dash around reading everything I write, and then frantically Googling to find tidbits of fringe opinions and barely relevant minutia to try to prove there is supposedly something wrong with what I wrote.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top