Agnostic Einstein Closer To Quranic God
By Dr Shabbir Ahmad, New Age Islam
May 9, 2013
Einstein was the greatest scientist of the twentieth century. Apart from his scientific achievements, he is also known for his strong and distinct views on religion and God. Though admittedly he was an agnostic (which is different from being an atheist), he was in fact a Pantheist as he believed in a superhuman, metaphysical power that was imminent in the universe driving the universe in perfect order. In this sense, he believed in Spinoza’s God which indentified God with nature and had no personality (Nirakar – formless). Spinoza was a Jewish philosopher who presented the idea that God and nature were the same and everything that existed in nature or in the universe was part of one reality.
As Einstein was a physicist, he could not believe in a God who was invoked by rituals and dogmas and was concerned with the actions and the fate of his own creatures. His belief in God was not in the sense of a religious fanatic or his disbelief in a personal God was not like that of an atheist. His approach to God was very balanced because he believed that nothing can be determined as final knowledge in this vast universe of which the human mind can have very limited knowledge. Thus unlike the atheists, he did not close the door to the belief in the existence of God nor like the religious man did he believe in a God who could be invoked by prayers. He believed in this ever moving and expanding nature that is the omnipotent presence in the most perfect order and harmony.
Thus though he categorically said that he did not believe in God in the religious sense of the term, he was actually thinking of the God in the way a mystic or a religiously inclined scientist would think of Him.
Einstein said that he lost his faith in religion while he was 12 because of his scientific studies which developed a scientific temperament in him. He thought the stories in the Bible were mere legends and the belief in God of the Bible was childlike. However, as his reason and intellect developed and he came much closer to nature through his scientific explorations and discoveries, he became more and more astonished at the presence of the wonderful harmony, perfection and order in the universe or nature. This made him believe in a harmonious force in nature that was behind the universe. About the concept of God, he was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Jewish philosopher and thinker Spinoza who believed that God and nature were one and everything in the universe was a manifestation of a super power which had maintained the harmony in all the creations. About his belief in God,he says:
“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of human beings.”
He was fascinated by Spinoza’s ideas about God because he himself as a scientist was overwhelmed by the limitless and vast universe and its incomprehensible expanse. However, he was fascinated by the perfection and harmony of the fast moving universe. He said,
“What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of "humility." This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.”
Einstein is overawed and overwhelmed by the pattern of the universe and at the same time acknowledges the frailty and the limitations of the human mind in grasping the whole truth of the universe. So he says,
“I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of that pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?”
He expresses the limitations of the human mind in understanding the total truth of the vast expanse of the universe and the laws governing it through a parable:
“The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvellously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza's Pantheism. I admire even more his contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate things.”
However, while he has formed his ideas about the existence or non-existence of God as a result of his scientific understanding of nature and universe and in dealing with it he has been influenced by the idea and philosophy of the Jewish philosopher Spinoza, but in essence Einstein is closer to the Quranic God. The Quran on numerous occasions exhorts man to ponder over nature, and appreciate the harmony, order and perfection present in nature and universe. Like the polytheists the Quran does not ask man to worship the objects of nature as the incarnation of a material god but only asks him to realize the existence of a supernatural being through His manifestations in nature. On numerous occasions, the Quran through examples draws the attention of man towards the marvels and wonders of God’s craftsmanship and expects man to have firm belief in the existence of the omnipotent and omnipresent God.
“Who has created death and life, that He may test you which of you is best in deed? And He is the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving; Who has created the seven heavens one above another, you can see no fault in the creations of the Most Beneficent. Then look again: "Can you see any rifts?" Then look again and yet again, your sight will return to you in a state of humiliation and worn out.”(Al Mulk: 2-4)
Spinoza’s pantheism in this way leads Einstein unwittingly to the concept of wahdat ul Wajud and wahdatus Shahud of the Muslim mysticism.
Spinoza’s idea of God with no form and personality is echoed in the following verse of the Quran to which Einstein unknowingly subscribes:
“Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives [all] vision; and He is the Subtle, the Acquainted.” (6-103)
Einstein also talks in the language of the Quran when he speaks of the incomprehensible existence of God vis a vis the limited existence and understanding of man:
“The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?” The Quran says on a couple of occasions that one thousand years to God is man’s one year.
Therefore Einstein though confesses to be an agnostic he actually believes in the God who manifests Himself through his creations in the nature. However, he believes not in a God in the same way as religious people do but he believes in a cosmic God free of dogma and rituals. He wants people to be religious not in the sense in which religious fanatics are but he is more inclined towards spiritualism, a spiritualism that can hear ‘the music of the spheres’ and such understanding of the religion can be achieved only through a scientific understanding of God and religion.
Thus while acknowledging that he personally believes in Spinoza’s God, Einstein actually comes closer to the understanding of the Quranic God.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-science/agnostic-einstein-closer-quranic-god/d/11605