Albert Einstein

“Mustard Seed of Faith” featuring Ross Gill from the album For Unsung Heroes recorded and produced by Ross Gill

I was watching Professor Brian Cox present BBC’s “Forces of Nature” and was most impressed with his great love for and deep appreciation of nature. What I found difficult to understand is how all the wonders he celebrates can be caused by accident. Professor Cox is a well know atheist – in my blog of June 30th I listed some of the many great scientists who are Christians but there are, of course many well-known scientists who are not – Professor Cox being one and Professor Richard Dawkins, author of the “The God Delusion” famously another.
What about Albert Einstein?
Wikipedia states:
Einstein stated in his final letter: ‘I am not an atheist.’,[19] explaining at one point: “I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal god is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.”[1] According to Prince Hubertus, Einstein said, “In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views
So not an evangelistic atheist like Dawkins but one who would call himself an agnostic.
And Charles Darwin, author of “Origin on the Species? “
Nicky Gumbel in his book “Searching Issues” states that towards the end of his life Charles Darwin wrote of :
“The impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe including man as a result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting, I feel compelled to look to a first cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man and I deserve to be called a theist.”
And Professor Stephen Hawking ? Lets see where he stands in next week’s blog.