Abstract
Albert Einstein was the greatest scientist of the 20th century but like Darwin his early years were not distinguished. When he was a child he spoke hesitantly and did not like the regimental style of German schooling. After his family moved from Germany he attended a school in Milan, Italy, but his interruption of lessons with questions and arguments led to his being asked to leave. He left without an entrance diploma to a university and subsequently failed the entrance examination to Zurich’s Polytechnic. But he did better at the school in Aarau and was admitted to the Polytechnic where he continued to show his dislike of the formal instruction. It was no surprise that on graduation, the professors refused to recommend him and he had to take a job at the Swiss Patent Office.1 He was an unassuming genius who paid little attention to the etiquette of society or dressing well. There are many stories about him in this connection. When he was living and working at Princeton he called at a friend’s house and his wife answered the door. She did not recognise Einstein and looking at his shabby clothes, assumed that he was a tramp: ‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘we cannot give you anything today’, and closed the door. On another occasion when his wife, Elsa, expecting visitors to arrive, tried to get him to wear a suit, he said: ‘When they arrive you can open the wardrobe and show them my suit’!
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible … in every true searcher of nature there is a kind of religious reverence … science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
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Notes
J. Schwartz and M. McGuinness, Einstein. Icon Books, Cambridge, 1992, p. 23ff, p. 137ff
Danah Zohar, Through the Time Barrier. Heinemann, London, 1982, p. 115
R. W. Clarke, Life and Times of Einstein. 1973, p. 87
R. Stannard, Doing Away with God. HarperCollins, London, 1992, p. 31
J. Bronowski, The Common Sense of Science. Heinemann, London, 1951, p. 67
A. Tilby, Science and the Soul. SPCK, London, 1992, p. 85
J. McEvoy and O. Zarate, Stephen Hawking. Icon Books, Cambridge, 1995, p. 70ff
Ian Barbour, Religion in an Age of Science. SCM, London, 1990, p. 110
Peter Millar, The Sunday Times, Oct 8, 1995
Stephen Hawking, Black Holes and Baby Universes. Bantam Books, London, 1993, p. 36
J. Polkinghorne, Science and Providence. SPCK, London, 1989, p. 82
S. E. Frost, Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers. Dolphin Books, New York, 1962, p. 116f
Ian Barbour, Issues in Science and Religion. SCM, London, 1966, p. 434ff
John Houghton, The Search for God. Can Science Help? Lion, Oxford, 1995, p. 132
Peter Lewis referring in Daily Mail, May 25, 1996 to the biography of Einstein by Denis Brian, Einstein. John Wiley, London, 1996
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© 1997 Robert Crawford
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Crawford, R. (1997). Einstein. In: The God/Man/World Triangle. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230509221_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230509221_4
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