Editing Albert Einstein (section)

==== Religious and philosophical views ====
{{Main|Religious and philosophical views of Albert Einstein}}
[[File:03 ALBERT EINSTEIN.ogg|thumb|Opening of Einstein's speech (11 April 1943) for the United Jewish Appeal (recording by Radio Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina)
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{{qi|Ladies (coughs) and gentlemen, our age is proud of the progress it has made in man's intellectual development. The search and striving for truth and knowledge is one of the highest of man's qualities{{nbs}}...}}]]
Per [[Lee Smolin]], {{qi|I believe what allowed Einstein to achieve so much was primarily a moral quality. He simply cared far more than most of his colleagues that the laws of physics have to explain everything in nature coherently and consistently.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=549–550}} Einstein expounded his spiritual outlook in a wide array of writings and interviews.<ref name="018QJ" /> He said he had sympathy for the impersonal [[pantheistic]] God of [[Spinozism|Baruch Spinoza's philosophy]].{{Sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=[{{GBurl|id=G_iziBAPXtEC|p=325}} 325]}} He did not believe in a [[personal god]] who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2000|p=218}} He clarified, however, that {{qi|I am not an atheist}},{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=390}} preferring to call himself an agnostic,{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2010|p=[{{GBurl|id=G_iziBAPXtEC|p=340}} 340]}}<ref name="flickr2687"/> or a {{qi|deeply religious nonbeliever}}.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2000|p=218}} He wrote that {{qi|A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=550–551}}

Einstein was primarily affiliated with non-religious [[Secular humanist|humanist]] and [[Ethical Culture]] groups in both the UK and US. He served on the advisory board of the [[First Humanist Society of New York]],<ref name="mKToJ"/> and was an honorary associate of the [[Rationalist Association]], which publishes ''[[New Humanist]]'' in Britain. For the 75th anniversary of the [[New York Society for Ethical Culture]], he stated that the idea of Ethical Culture embodied his personal conception of what is most valuable and enduring in religious idealism. He observed, {{qi|Without 'ethical culture' there is no salvation for humanity.}}<ref>Einstein (1995), p. 62.{{GBurl|id=9fJkBqwDD3sC|p=62}}</ref>

In a German-language letter to philosopher [[Eric Gutkind]], dated 3 January 1954, Einstein wrote:
{{quote|[[God (word)|The word God]] is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. ... 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. ... I cannot see anything '[[Jews as the chosen people|chosen]]' about them.<ref name="xI99y"/>}}

Einstein had been sympathetic toward vegetarianism for a long time. In a letter in 1930 to Hermann Huth, vice-president of the [[ProVeg Deutschland#History|German Vegetarian Federation (Deutsche Vegetarier-Bund)]], he wrote:
{{quote|Although I have been prevented by outward circumstances from observing a strictly vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle. Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ivu.org/history/northam20a/einstein.html
| title=Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
| publisher=International Vegetarian Union
}}</ref>}}
He became a vegetarian himself only during the last part of his life. In March 1954 he wrote in a letter: {{qi|So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It almost seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore.}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://aretheyvegan.com/alberteinstein/
| title=Was Albert Einstein vegan?
| website=AreTheyVegan.com
| date=27 March 2020
}}</ref>