Albert Eiensten was quoted as saying that "God does not play dice with the universe. To me this means that our universe is in a solar system of universes and this solar system of universes is in a galaxy of universes; by intelligent design.

I think the universe (everything in existence) is in a shape resembling a fractal.

Ryan2006 ... it is the equivalent of a criminal act that you have taken a quote from Einstein and used it to try to prop up an idea without substance. You could just as reasonably told us that an invisible purple rhinoceros told you so.

Rob ... fractals don't have a shape. Is the universe fractal? Absolutely! But that has nothing to do with shape or size or anything of the kind.

Ryan2006
If you are going to use a quote from someone, first find out what he/she meant by it, find out the context in which the quote was made. If you don't do this (as in this case) you will appear to be an ignorant person. I'm sure you don't want that. Right?.

Ryan,

1. While Einstein was not an atheist, he did not believe in a personal god.

2. The way in which Einstein claimed to be spiritual, I barely know any atheists who are not equally spiritual.

3. Einstein wasn't right just because he's Einstein.

4. Even if Einstein and your interpretation of him were correct, your logic would still be a non sequitur.

I think your critisms are in fact ignornant. No person can claim to know everything.

I don't believe this! I've read a very short biography on Einstein and it CLEARLY said that he gave up all religious beliefs at a very early age. Soon I will buy a proper biography but I just can't wait that long to know - how did Einsten claim to be spiritual? Was it that sentient universe thing that came up once before on this forum? -Or something else? -I hope he didn't believe in a creator.

Rob,

From a few things I've read, it seems to me that Einstein had beliefs like those of a pantheist.

Spiritual thoughts and ideas are not necessarily = to religion.

I have tried reading David Bohm and understanding the phenomenon of non-locality. This seems related to pantheism.

Any thoughts from those of you more rigorously trained in physics?

I may have accidentally been a pantheist while claiming to be an atheist. But I know I don't fall in with the idea of "It's all love and kisses out there because we're one big unified thing".

I have this idea that keeps popping in my head that every event I consciously encounter is actually a physical reflection of the same event. Kind of like the movie 'Ground-Hog Day' on steroids. I love that movie. Maybe it's just a desire to seek out familiar patterns.

It's funny how I grow. Time for my medication!

see ya folks,

mark

probably should have posted the last on the origins forum or the psuedo a go go.

my bad.

"Spiritual thoughts and ideas are not necessarily = to religion."

So Einstein believed in life after death?!

Can you explain what you mean, a little more. Do you mean how our frame of mind effects our reality and our reality effects our frame of mind? Or do you mean reality is in actuality an extention of our minds?
I'll have to check out Bohm...thanks for the recommendation.

Not that I know of. I didn't mean to imply it.

This might be a good place to point out that leveraging Einstein's brilliance in physics to theology is as valuable as asking Itzak Perlman about quaternion algebra.

Please get over this all-to-human urge to assume that because a person knows something about one subject what they say on another has value.