Einstein’s Intellectually Honest, Agnostic Uncle
Legendary physicist Albert Einstein grew up in a secularized Jewish family. His parents intended to give Albert the family name of Abraham, but decided that it sounded too Jewish. They did not observe the Jewish dietary regulations or the Sabbath work-stoppage, and they were not congregants of a local synagogue.
One extended family member, an uncle, was the exception to that latter trend. Though he was a self-proclaimed agnostic, he frequented his local synagogue. “But, ah, you never know,” he would remark. This thought—an agnostic regularly attending a monotheistic religious service—waffles between absurd and amusing.
Yet, the story of Einstein’s uncle and his quirky quip (recounted in Walter Isaacson’s Einstein: His Life and Universe, 2008) is refreshing. Here, we have a seemingly authentic agnostic, one who acts as if he knows neither if God exists nor if God does not exist.
Many agnostics I have known were actually atheists. To many, agnosticism is a humble or polite atheism. They don’t believe in God, but they have no animosity for those who do believe. If more self-proclaimed agnostics would muse, “but, ah, you never know,” then we would have a much clearer context for evangelism and, secondarily, apologetics.
The deeper irony, of course, is that in a universe ruled by a God, who is jealous for his own glory and gracious in his revelation of himself, agnosticism is a fictitious religious orientation. The ultimate rebellion against God is unbelief, of which we are guilty when we look at the grandeur of creation or hear the good news of Jesus Christ and say, “But, ah, you never know.”
