Einstein on science and religion

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

Albert Einstein's annus mirabilis (miracle year) was 1905, the year in which he published his theories about atoms, light and relativity; solving three of the main problems facing physics at the time. But science doesn't take place in a vacuum and Einstein's work built upon that of his predecessors, beginning with Sir Isaac Newton, whose "miracle year" was 1666, when he did very important work on light and developed his laws of motion and the universal law of gravitation.

The journey from Newton to Einstein was led by Dr. Stanley Greenspoon, convenor of Capilano College's physics department and chair of the B.C. Physics and Astronomy Articulation Committee. In a lecture entitled The Première Physicist – Albert Einstein, Greenspoon not only explained Einstein's accomplishments in physics, but their context within the scientific world and within Einstein's life and religious beliefs.

Leaving Germany

Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879, but the family soon moved to Munich. Dropping out of high school in Germany, Einstein completed his degree in Switzerland, then entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich in 1896, to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. Unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a job in the Swiss Patent Office in Berne. He worked there until 1908, despite that he published many of his remarkable theories in 1905.

Eventually, Einstein was recognized and got a professorship at the University of Zurich. After a couple of stints as a professor elsewhere, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute in 1914. Despite harassment from Nazi-supporting colleagues, Einstein remained in Europe until 1933, when he finally emigrated to the United States to take a position at the Institute for Advanced Study located in Princeton, N.J. He never returned to Germany. He died on April 18, 1955.

A scientific genius

Using computer animation and other demonstrations, Greenspoon explained the history of the problems that Einstein solved in three papers that were published in Annalen der Physik, volume 17, in 1905.

The first paper was on atoms. One hundred years ago, the existence of atoms was not accepted.

"They had a nebulous theory of what matter was," said Greenspoon, "It wasn't composed of atoms. Einstein believed in atoms."

In the 1820s, a biologist by the name of Brown saw pollen grains in water and they moved erratically, explained Greenspoon. Brown looked at various other substances under a microscope and found the same perpetual movement of particles. Einstein proposed that the random movement of the relatively large particles was caused by collisions with the molecules of atoms in the water and he calculated how far the large particles moved over a certain period of time. He thus explained what was called, after its "founder," Brownian motion.

Einstein's second paper was on light. Newton believed that light consisted of particles, which was different than the prevailing thought at his time that light was a wave. The wave-particle debate continued for centuries. Einstein went back to Newton's theories somewhat in explaining the results of experiments that shone different-colored lights on a metal surface by showing how light acted as a particle (photon). His observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light, or the photoelectrical effect. This knowledge has allowed us to create such technology as that used in digital cameras.

The third paper published in 1905 was Einstein's special theory of relativity. Years earlier, at age 16, Einstein had posited the notion that, if he were pursuing a beam of light at the speed of light, then the beam would seem at rest.

"Imagine a man standing in front at a mirror looking at himself," explained Greenspoon, "and he [Einstein] said, 'What happens if the mirror and the man are moving at the speed of light to the right?' The man looks and see himself in the mirror. True?... Well, Einstein thought, 'Interesting problem.... If I'm watching this guy, the light will never reflect off the mirror because the light will be going the same speed as the mirror, the light will not get to the mirror and, therefore, he'll stop seeing himself.' "

Relativity was not a new concept in Einstein's time – Newton and others had explored it, said Greenspoon. It was already determined that absolute uniform motion cannot be detected, only relative motion. This was classical relativity, but later experiments in electricity and magneticism seemed to violate this principle.

"This bothered Einstein, he didn't like this, he found this very, very inelegant; the fact that you could actually detect absolute motion didn't seem right," said Greenspoon. "He felt that the laws of physics, not just the laws of motion, that all the laws of physics should satisfy this principle of relativity, such that, if you do experiments in a uniformly moving system, the experiments will work out exactly the same way as they would work out in a so-called stationery system."

The problem stemmed from the belief that time and space were absolute and the speed of light was relative. Einstein showed that, in fact, the opposite was true: time and space were relative, whereas light was absolute, its speed never changed. Einstein's 1905 paper on the special theory of relativity reconciled the laws of Newtonian mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field.

Some of Einstein's other important scientific works include the general theory of relativity (1916), a new theory of gravitation in which space and time are not just stages on which things happen - if something has a mass, space and time are distorted by it.

In 1922, Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics. His name had come up for almost a decade, said Greenspoon, but was refused every time. The citation reads that Einstein received the prize "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."

"The Nobel committee is very cautious," said Greenspoon. "Relativity, hmm ... maybe it's not really there. Atoms? Hmm. Who knows? Let's be very cautious. This photoelectric effect, the law works. Let's give it to him for the law."

Einstein as a Jew

Einstein's parents were secular, said Greenspoon. Although Einstein went through a religious period at the age of 11 or 12, he abandoned religiosity quickly, once he realized that all the stories in the Bible couldn't possibly have happened from a scientific point of view. Einstein chose to not have a bar mitzvah.

Other than this brief background, Greenspoon let Einstein's own words summarize his religious views, using quotes from various sources and years. From, 1940: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." From 1954: "I don't try to imagine a God; it suffices to stand in awe of the structure of the world...." Greenspoon said that Einstein didn't particularly care for organized religion, but that he wasn't an atheist, he just didn't believe in a personal God watching over him.

"I wouldn't say his Judaism drove him or had anything to do with his scientific research," said Greenspoon, "but I would say that his religious beliefs, his cosmic religion, certainly did."

Greenspoon touched upon Einstein's Zionism and his connection with the Jewish people. He ended his lecture with another quote from Einstein: "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

Greenspoon's lecture was part of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver's Adult Jewish Studies Institute series Movers and Shapers of the 20th Century. The next talk is Nov. 21, 7:30-9 p.m., by Dr. Mel Krajden, on Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin - Jewish Scientists and the Race to Conquer Polio. The cost is $20. For more information, call 604-257-5111.

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