Einstein, Hitler, God

More atheism.

    I was recently discussing with a friend the inverse correlation between religiosity and education and/or scientific training (some would like to say intelligence although this is more controversial) that many researchers have demonstrated when he pointed out that Einstein, intelligent as he was, believed in God.  As our conversation got more heated, he also brought up the old chestnut that many of the world’s most evil men, Hitler for example, were atheists.  Contrary to my friend’s beliefs, there is substantial documentary evidence that Einstein was an atheist and that Hitler was a Catholic.
    The impression that Einstein believed in God may have come from a misinterpretation of his 1929 letter to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of New York in which he stated: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.”
    Many of his other writings make it clear that Einstein did not believe in a personal God in the same sense as the God of Abraham or Moses.  Here is a sampling of quotes attributed to him:

•    “It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”
•       “I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science.” March, 1954
•        “I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science. My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance-but for us, not for God.” August, 1927
•        "From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.... 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 being." 1945
•        "Thus I came--despite the fact I was the son of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents--to a deep religiosity, which, however, found an abrupt ending at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived...Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude... has never left me..." Autobiographical notes, 1945

   

    Hitler was born and bred a Catholic.  Moreover, he was inculcated from an early age with the belief that the Jews were ultimately responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, a concept not unsupported by the Vatican prelates of the time.  Anti-Semitism, therefore, constituted a normal and accepted part of the cultural landscape Hitler grew up in. John Toland wrote of Hitler: "Still a member in good standing of the Church of Rome despite detestation of its hierarchy, he carried within him its teaching that the Jew was the killer of god. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of god - so long as it was done impersonally, without cruelty. Himmler was pleased to murder with mercy. He ordered technical experts to devise gas chambers which would eliminate masses of Jews efficiently and 'humanely', then crowded the victims into boxcars and sent them east to stay in ghettos until the killing centers in Poland were completed."
    The following quotes are evidence of his religiosity:

•        "I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord's work. " 1938
•        "Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews . . . The work that Christ started but could not finish, I--Adolf Hitler--will conclude." 1926
•        "Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work." Mein Kampf, 1925
•        "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so," 1941

    So much for those two misconceptions. 

Joseph Froncioni

Comments

[joseph Froncioni]

Citation:

“I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”

Adolf Hitler, from John Toland [Pulitzer Prize winner], Adolf Hitler, New York: Anchor Publishing, 1992, p. 507.

[midori]

How about a citation for that 1941 quote? I see all over on anti-religious sites, but no one seems to identify the actual source.

[Blake]

I was hoping this would be a "Walk into a bar" joke.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for clearing that up. The misconception has bothered me for a while too.