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ManusJustus on 03 September 2010
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Kasz216 said:
ManusJustus said:

Hawking use to be more religious in the past, atleast that is what I got from some of his books and speeches.  Like Albert Einstein before him, Hawking would use God in some of his explanations, but Einstein was privately an atheist who considered religion a silly child's myth while Hawkings private ideas about religion haven't really come out (atleast to my knowledge).


That's not even remotely true.  About Einstein.

Einstein believed in a god.  He just didn't believe in any specific god.

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.

- Albert Einstein

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. 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. As far as my experience goes, they are also 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.

- Albert Einstein

Keep in mind the bottom quote came from personal letters released well after Einstein's death.  It would have been unwise for him to make his opinions public.  So yes, you are correct in that Einstein did say that he believed in God, but his personal letters to family and friends show otherwise.