by Joe Ventura
Is there any more recognizable face than that of Albert Einstein?
Einstein conjures up different reactions by most, all usually positive. He has become a caricature in our culture, almost cartoonish with his expressive face and distinctive hairstyle. Just the image of his face can sell products, symbolic for genius and that famous equation, (E=MC²).
His image is so ingrained in our culture, many young people think Einstein more an iconic symbol without any understanding of who the man is or what he’s done--they just know that's Einstein!
When somebody becomes so popular and admired, especially if they are considered genius, and in Einstein’s case, the symbol for great intelligence, it can become easy to assume they are enlightened in all areas of life as they are their field of expertise.
Einstein worked in a world of physics and dealt with life’s matter, energy, space, and time. He had an epic influence in the world. He not only formally revolutionized physics with his Theory of Relativity that drastically amended the Newtonian, classical views, but he also changed the world with his formulation of equality between energy and matter (E=mc2) which provided the theoretical foundation for such world altering developments such as Atomic Bomb and Nuclear Energy.
Kind of an impressive resume don’t you think?
There are many quotes of Einstein floating around. The man said some very wise and insightful things about life;
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
Because someone is so profoundly insightful in one are of life does not mean they are equally enlightened in another, namely the spiritual world. This can be confusing to many. Surely someone as bright as Einstein knew there has to be a God…right?
In the humanist’s world, Einstein is seen as a god with his omnipotent intelligence. He is perceived as so far advanced than most mere mortals that he must be otherworldly.
This confusion between greatness in one area of life and another is nothing new. When someone becomes so grand in our culture it is easy to make them an idol. Because we admire the genius and accomplishments of Einstein, we can easily slip into a naïve understanding that the man was spiritually endowed as he was mentally gifted.
He was not!
Scripture sheds light to this misunderstanding.
“…they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” -- Col. 2:2-3
"For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" I Corinthians 1:19-20
It was discovered recently that Albert Einstein described belief in God as "childish superstition" and said Jews were not the chosen people, in a 1954 letter to be sold in London this week.
As a Jew himself, Einstein said he had a great affinity with Jewish people but said they "have no different quality for me than all other people".
"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.”
"No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this," he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper.
"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions," he said.
"And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people."
And he added: "As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
"The foolishness of God is wiser than men," and God "shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." –I Cor 1:18ff
The man who attacks the truth of God's word is opposing himself -- like a child who slaps his father's face while sitting on his lap. If it were not for the father's gracious support, no one could insult Him!
To oppose the outlook of God's revelation is to work against everything that you are as a creature of God. Men know the truth about God -- not a god, but the living and true God with all His divine attributes but attempt to suppress it (Rom. 1:18ff.).
Paul says that God has revealed it to them (all of them!), and not left it up to natural theology or philosophic argumentation; they know the truth about God inherently and confront it everywhere they look around their environment: natural, social, psychological.
The Almighty God is able to speak without stuttering, without ambiguity, without confusion, and Paul declares that He has spoken.
God (even outside the written word) has made his word plain to all creatures made in His image. And because of their sin (which to recognize would entail too much emotional trauma and changing of one's ways of life and thinking) they push down that revelation, putting a pseudo-god in the Creator's place (e.g. self-reliance, finances, intellectual prowess, etc.).
Yet without that revelation from God there would be no connection between the particulars of experience and the principles of logic, no uniformity to be discerned in nature, no harmony between the one and the many (unity and diversity), etc. So when men who work from humanistic assumptions come to refute the gospel, they oppose themselves and are prevented from finding the truth.
How humbling is it to know that God accepts the childlike faith of someone who says, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so."
God does not ask us to first become an “Einstein”, but just the opposite. He tells us we can do nothing to earn merit. We are like sheep gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Is 53:6).
We are helpless and hopeless on our own to find favor before a Holy God. God demands holiness and we are unholy. It is only the finished work of the Savior Jesus that can bring us to a saving faith in the God of all creation.
How utterly tragic a man like Einstein, who knew things most will never understand about creation did not know the Creator, who described belief in God as "childish superstition" and described God as "nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.”
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
