Religious Relativity

Here is a wonderful read on Albert Einstein, the man who brought us the theory of relativity. Learning this in college was one of the more interesting times in Physics class. Einstein believed in God, which in itself makes him a stand-out scientist, and here is his reasoning of God and the universe:

Einstein's theism, such as it was, was his faith that God does not play dice with the universe -- that there are elegant, eventually discoverable laws, not randomness, at work. Saying "I'm not an atheist," he explained:

"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is."

What an awesome, sane sentiment from a man of science!

About a month after the election, I was sitting at a noon conference having lunch at the hospital. Noon conference is an hour-long educational hour for medical residents. I usually send my pharmacy students as well, and it is attended by about 45 people from many different backgrounds and countries. The speaker for that particular day was a GI doc. As the conference continued it became apparent that he was a big-time liberal still coming to terms with the outcome of the election. While there are many shocking things that he blurted out during this 'medical' talk, there was one that really stood out and was especially insulting.

I can not even remember what exactly brought it up, but out of nowhere he says "Everyone here believes in evolution, right? Of course we all believe in evolution, there are no Republicans here? Surely not...no one here believes in creation, we're scientists, we're all smarter than that..."

As I write this I realize, even more, how incredibly pompous this guy was with his assumptions. Rhode Island is a deep blue state, but 39% did vote for Bush, which means roughly 4 out of every 10 people are sane up here ;) I can assure you that I was not the only 'creationist' in the room...how many people did he offend? No telling.

But most of all, for all of his bloviating, self-importance and proclaimed higher intelligence, Einstein would have laughed at him, and it was Einstein's mind that "changed the world."