Brilliance or Foolishness?

Named by Time Magazine as “Man of the Century,” one of the most celebrated Americans of the 20th century was in the news again recently. Although he passed from this world in 1955, Albert Einstein left a legacy as one of the greatest scientists of all time.

World famous for developing his theories of special and general relativity, he would go on to win the Nobel Prize. Despite his brilliant advances in science, however, Einstein himself was not happy with the implications of his conclusions.

In 1916 Einstein realized that if his theory of general relativity were true, it would mean that the universe was not eternal; it would have had a beginning—a fact which he later called, “irritating.” His world view called for an eternal universe that existed apart from divine intervention.

In an effort to alleviate this disconcerting problem, he tried to modify his theory to avoid an absolute beginning. His efforts failed, however, when in 1919 another cosmologist performed an experiment that confirmed conclusively that his original theory of general relativity was indeed correct. This second scientist, Arthur Eddington, was no happier than Einstein: “Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of nature is repugnant to me. . . . I should like to find a genuine loophole.”

This week a letter written by Einstein in 1954 is to be auctioned in London. In the letter he declared, “The word of 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.”

It is said that there is a fine line between genius and idiocy. The Bible affirms, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” We still benefit from the brilliance of Albert Einstein; it is a sad fact of history that he failed to appreciate the implications of his own research.