One of Albert Einstein's most famous quotes on the subject of God was a statement that he made when talking about the fundamentals of quantuum mechanics. He is paraphrased as saying: "God does not play dice with the Universe." Actually, the accurate quote is:

Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.

Today, Albert Einstein's views on God are even more important than they were during the 20th century, because, as the most famous scientist of the 20th century, he shed a little light on concepts of God that are compatible with modern science and still have relevance for our lives.

It is very important to understand that Einstein was a scientist and was neither a philosopher nor a religious figure. As a scientist, it is useful to look at Bertrand Russell's essay on "Mysticism and Science" in which he claimed that mysticism and science share some methodology. In particular, they share a similar source of ideas: the intuitive brain, with all of its mystical experiences. The famous reference to mystical experiences in mathematics and science being the term "Eureka"; the expression of a Greek philosopher and mathematician about a discovery he had just made about the displacement of water.

Given my knowledge of mathematical and scientific discovery, I believe that the appropriate way to understand what Einstein was saying is to avoid any overtly religious interpretation. To Einstein, it was completely clear that God did not intervene in the affairs of humankind. Instead, if there was a God, then all he did was to establish the laws of physics and mathematics and then exit stage left. The experience of God was something that Einstein found useful to himself, personally, however. I believe that his experience of God was related to his sense of wonder, as expressed in a quote I have on one of favorite my t-shirts: "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." When he had a feeling of wonder, which he did nothing to discourage, the concept of God helped him to think about the deepest questions of how the universe worked, which were the issues he liked to work on as a physicist.

As a third-generation humanist, I am beginning to appreciate how one's feelings about God can easily be connected to one's upbringing, including the society in which you were raised. Einstein was raised in a community that did not insist on specific regular interventions by God in the affairs of the world, but in which God was present as a concept. The concept of God he was raised with was just the most general concept of God known to us all: the goodness and all-knowingness of God.

Einstein took this as more of a challenge to see how all-knowing he could be, but from the perspective of a physicist, not the perspective of a clergyman or even a rabbi. He had good feelings for God, partly because he knew that God was not responsible for Hitler or for World War I, because he did not intervene in the affairs of the world. Einstein knew of his own personal role in the success or defeat of Hitler, and played his part to ensure that Hitler would never win.

God's only role was to create it all and be the author of the laws of physics. Even this Einstein was perfectly prepared to investigate, however. He would have had no theological problem with investigating what came before the Big Bang. If asked a direct question about how God worked that allowed him to create the universe and the laws of physics, I suspect he would have laughed and explained that he did not think of God as being real in the same sense as the world is real. It was a concept he used to help filter out the good theories from the bad theories, but as a scientist, not as a mystic.

The scientist uses the intuitive to determine what bits of scientific work should be done. It establishes the beginning of scientific work, not the end point. Scientific work investigates the hypothesis from the intuitive mind, and verifies its validity and uncovers its flaws. The quality of the work of the intuitive mind of a scientist is just as important as the quality of the rest of his or her scientific work. The suggestion that God "exists" within the natural world would have been ridiculous to Einstein, but this would do nothing to the value of Einstein's concept of God to Einstein. If challenged on how his concept of God could be explained to the general population, Einstein would have expressed a lack of time with which to address the question. This is a key question for rabbis and other clergy, and not a question he was really interested in.

He did, however, address this question in an essay on "Religion and Science":

Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. ... But there is a third stage of religious experience ... : I call it cosmic religious feeling. ... How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.

I do not think that Einstein thought that this passage would be the best way of explaining himself to the world, but it was the best he could do at the time. He has left it to others to go beyond his words and create the art that will do the heavy lifting required to bring his views to life in those who are receptive to them.