I’m sad to say that most of the scientific material in this book of excerpts from Einstein’s publications and speeches, material aimed at a general audience, went right over my head. Much more interesting were the discussions of such topics as religion and science, international peace, nuclear war, and Germany, Israel, and the Jewish people. The reading was a bit tough, only because his thought process was so consistent over the years. What I came away with was the following:

On Religion and Science: I’ve heard it said that any time a person expresses an intelligent thought to an unintelligent person, the meaning of thought is always ruined, because the unintelligent person must translate the thought into something unintelligent in order to comprehend it. Strong stuff, but it is true at least for those people who use Einstein’s various phrases about God playing dice, etc as proof of his support for Christianity or Atheism. Einstein’s thoughts on religion were deep and rich, and not easily understood out of context. He believed that a quasi-religious “Cosmic sense” of the wonder of the Universe was the inspiration for scientists and artists, as well as the most noble of our possible emotions. He believed that religious idea could guide our society in ways that science could not, since science can give us the “means” of achieving but not the “ends” of what was worth achieving. He didn’t believe in a personal, white-bearded God, but it’s not clear that he exactly would have been a fan of the Richard Dawkins brand of Atheism either.

On War: Einstein’s belief was simple, and held from well before World War II until his death during the Cold War- the only way to permanently avoid war is by establishing an international governing body capable both of settling disputes peacefully and crushing nations that choose to solve problems through aggression. In his mind this would require member nations to submit portions of both their armies and their sovereignty to the organization. Not exactly a popular idea in this day and age, especially with the flaccidity of the United Nations. Additionally, the years since Einstein (and especially since the Cold War ended) have seen an explosion in democracy, peace and prosperity in the world. The world as it is serves as an albeit imperfect counter-point to Einstein’s conviction. However, since the end of the USSR, the world has been unipolar- I hope that the threat of war doesn’t increase with the growing rivalries of China, India, and Russia with the United States, but there’s a decent chance it will. I imagine that threat will make Einstein’s predictions look a lot better in 30 years than they do now.

On Germany, Israel, and the Jews: Fascinating to see Einstein lament the country he belongs to, Germany, as it descends into madness. Equally fascinating to track his growing sense of belonging to another nation- the Jewish Diaspora, and his attempt to heal it by the promotion of Zionism. One gets an eerie sense reading his fears in the 1930s for what Germany might become, or his insistence at the creation of Israel that proper care must be taken to form a union rather than a conflict with the Arabs. If only we had headed his warnings.