Over the span of a lifetime, many great men change their convictions. Also, folks say a lot of stuff. From that stuff we have to figure out what was inherently meant. So just because you post a few
quotes that he said and that state that he was not religious (and the term "religious" is one that is vague and inspecific) doesn't necessarily make it absolute. Having read several biographies of him, I believe he was religious in some respect. But maybe not in the "I go to church every
Sunday to commune with
God" sense.
Re-reading this real quickly--I'm not intrinsically disagreeing with Saige. Einstein was a complex man. Making a simple statement such as "he was/wasn't religious" is probably an injustice.
An addendum for those who think I'm being "congenial":
The act of being religious doesn't require a personal god, nor does it require priests or organized faith (look it up in a dictionary if you don't believe me). Einstein was a highly spiritual person who _believed_ in the science not just as a fun set of classes to take and a cool new way to impress people, but as a driving force behind his existence. He studied it, he played with it, he thought about it. He firmly believed that it was simple and beautiful. He believed that it would guide his soul. It irked him no end that Quantum theory posed the idea that it's all random because it destroyed the simplicity and beauty which he believed in his whole life. In this way, I say he more than spiritual and he is absolutely and in no uncertain terms, religious. Perhaps not a conventionally religious person but you would never see him at the local Christian or Jewish ceremony.
"I want to know God's thoughts--the rest are details." -- Albert Einstein
My saying that he is religious does not imply that he believed in a prime mover or a personal God. Joseph Campbell was very religious and didn't believe in God or priests or Catholicism or organized religion either.
This isn't a thesis though and there's very little factual proof in my or Saige's node. And nothing factually redeeming in ximenez's node. But if a couple of quotes is all you need to decide the "facts", then you're a poor historian. But you should believe whatever is congenial to you.