Did Einstein Believe in God?

Einstein certainly doesn’t seem to have believed in a “personal” God. In the telegram to the rabbi, he wrote, “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and doings of mankind.” To Guy Raner, the Navy ensign, Einstein wrote that it was “misleading to use anthropomorphical concepts in dealing with things outside the human sphere.” He called these “childish analogies.” In short, Einstein distanced himself from the idea of a personal, Christian-style God. Still, he was always careful to preserve his own freedom to wonder at and respond to the universe in a full-bodied way.