Einstein and Religion - with considerations of "Human Free Will" (page 3)

botchtowersociety

I am currently reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Life-Universe-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1442348062

botchtowersociety

Spinoza seems to be the closest to Einstein's eventual religious belief - a sort of pantheistic nature-God which is not personalized but is rather a manifestation of the entire cosmos.

Spinoza wasn't really a pantheist, by the way. I have one of the few biographies written about him. I picked it up years ago because he had a "shunning" experience very much like many of us.

james_woods

Einstein's view of Spinoza was pantheistic/cosmic, at least. (according to the quote I gave in the OP)

Actually, pantheistic may not be the precisely right word - but -

Who knows what those philosophers really thought?

They all seem to me to be talking in circles...

But now the promising theory is String, and this postulates upward of 10-15 dimensions each having it's effect on the 4 dimension, this certainly complicates the math and may provide an answer to his "spooky action at a distance" I'm thinking like a wormhole thru the 4 because the other dimensions may be extremely small and may be the source of this faster than light communication between sub atomic particles.

Einstein deterministic view shaped his ideas about god. He had a logical deterministic view of god. This god having no personality or whimsical reactions to humans as his worshippers, but was symonymous with laws that make the universe exist.

He was the last of the great classical physicist, Quantum with all it's uncertainty and weirdness eventually won out whichs seems to be leading us to infinite universes/mutiverse which simply may be like peeling an onion with infinite layers. Simply means more higher form mathematics may be needed which may in the end be deterministic but which math we haven't perfected at this time but may, or may not come, later in future developement.

The meaning of human free will is a term that can be as broad or as narrow as the mind that contemplates its meaning or use in the human language. And the term deterministic as broad or as narrow as one's mathematical comprehension.

james_woods

But what on earth would string theory have to do with Einstein's religious views or the issue of human free will?

String theory had not even been proposed at the time of Einstein's death, and is still not proven physics.

Like I said, I intended this thread to be about Einstein's religious views, not about his physics - we may have gotten off track with the notions of determinism.

nancy drew

I don't really know what we are or how come there's something instead of nothing so I've tried to narrow down a question about free will and genetics. The oxytocin receptors we can have AA AG or GG and we are strongly affected by which combination we have. There's alot of research on this and it's still in it's infancy oxytocin affects our relationships with others in a major way so what about free will? The research says our culture plays a role as well in the U.S. most people are GG then AG and last AA. You might say that when people hug for example the oxytocin champagne fountain turns on and what you get out of it depends on how many empty champagne glasses you have so the GG has lots of receptors and the AA not so many and that makes a difference in that person's life. A completely different experience from the same thing so i wonder how did we get this way and how much choice do we really have. i don't know.

frankiespeakin

Einstein & Faith Time magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1607298,00.html

james_woods

Thanks, Frankiespeaking.

Nancy:

You might say that when people hug for example the oxytocin champagne fountain turns on and what you get out of it depends on how many empty champagne glasses you have so the GG has lots of receptors and the AA not so many and that makes a difference in that person's life.

With your permission, I would like to immortalize that one in Wibble.

nancy drew

Woods

You can take that to wibble

james_woods

We Wibble with it then, Nancy.

It is fine Wibble.

Einstein and Religion - with considerations of "Human Free Will"

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