Einstein and the Professor – some thoughts

The following is a story very commonly found across the Web – curiously enough, 90% of the time on Christian websites, which perhaps gives you a hint as to its validity. Basically put, it's a young God-believing student who debates with an arrogant atheistic university professor ('cause aren't all atheistic university professors arrogant, anyway, right?) about that old dilemma: can God, supposedly the creator of absolutely everything, logically coexist with evil?

And a little kicker: this young, humble God-believing student? He's Albert Einstein.

... Or so the story claims. Full tale below: Einstein and the Professor.

A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?"

A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"

"God created everything?" The professor asked.

"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."

The student became quiet and did not answer the professor's hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question, professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"

The other students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color.

You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man's Inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

The young man's name - Albert Einstein

A very interesting and intriguing little story, indeed. Especially considering it's supposedly an account of the most intelligent man for the last two hundred years. Problem is, it's also utterly and unequivocally wrong. Below are the three reasons for which it fails in my view.

First, I doubt someone with the genius of Einstein could've said something so ... dumb. Of course darkness and cold exist (more on "evil" later). They are states of being, used to qualify a lack of light or heat, respectively. The fact that darkness and cold are not material or matter in themselves and cannot actually be measured, does not make them nonexistent. They are simply words we use to describe a lack of "positives" (if a lack is a negative, then arguably a presence of matter is a positive).

Secondly, this rationalization about how evil simply being the result of a lack of God or God's love in men's hearts – now that's just silly (and hard to comprehend to boot as it's so nonsensical).

2-A – Darkness and cold are of the realms of physics; evil is of the realms of philosophy. Laws of debating differ between the two; what's true for physics works differently for philosophy. They don't even belong in the same debate. No Einstein would've made such a stupid mistake.

2-B – Contrary to darkness and cold, evil actually doesn't exist. Nothing is actually evil, and no-one can actually be purely "evil". Everyone does what they think is right – for themselves. One only makes actions that are so-called "evil" when they benefit themselves at the cost of others (such as a rapist getting enjoyment and satisfaction at the expense of the victim, or a mad dictator satisfying himself from a power rush at the expense of a country or people he's crushed).

And finally, thirdly: Einstein and the Professor is completely fake. Well, perhaps the story about a God-believing student debating with an atheistic professor is true; that much we can never know. But what we do know for absolutely certain, is that there's no way in hell that young student was Albert Einstein, and this, for several reasons:

1. In his own Autobiographical Notes, Einstein explains that the "deep religiosity" he held as a child ended by the time he was merely twelve years old. From that point on, his views towards a personal God were that of deep skepticism. There's no way a University-bound Einstein (assuming he was older than twelve by then) would've stood up for his beliefs in God when he clearly stated, himself, repeatedly, that he didn't have any to begin with. Might as well claim Richard Dawkins shouted "I love God!", it's just as feasible or credible.
2. On March 24, 1954, Einstein wrote this in a response to a letter he'd gotten from a stranger:

   It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

   'Tis rather clearly worded, methinks.

3. And finally, for some extra clarification:

   "... gets used in legends whose plots call for a smart person, one whom the audience will immediately recognize as such (e.g. modern tellings of an ancient legend about a learned rabbi who switches places with his servant feature Albert Einstein in the role of esteemed scholar). This venerated cultural icon has, at least in the world of contemporary lore, become a stock character to be tossed into the fray wherever the script calls for a genius. ..."

   Likewise, "the atheist professor" is a figure common to a number of urban legends and anecdotes of the faithful — he gets flung into the mix where there's a need for someone to play the role of Science Vanquished in Science-versus-Religion tales. ...

   He's a stereotype, not an actual person. He exists to be knocked over by the persuasive arguments of the faithful in yarns about theology successfully defended.

   In other words, Einstein has become the icon for the smart, reasonable, universally correct and rightful type, especially used in false analogies like Einstein and the Professor.

So, all in all, this is just yet another example of how Christians really fail, so hard, at rationalizing and logically debating. They really just aren't good at it. Makes you wonder why they keep trying nonetheless ... it might be worthy of recognition, how they just keep trying and never give up, if it wasn't so annoying.

All relevant information above taken from Religious Tolerance.