Wolfgang Pauli on Albert Einstein

“Einstein did not consider the concept of 'determinism' to be as fundamental as it is frequently held to be (as he told me emphatically several times), and he denied energetically that he had ever put up a postulate such as (your letter, para. 3): 'the sequence of such conditions must also be objective and real, that is, automatic, machine-like, deterministic'. In the same way he disputes that he uses as criterion for the inadmissibility of a theory the question: 'Is it rigorously deterministic?'Einstein's point of departure is 'realistic' rather than 'deterministic,' which means that his philosophical prejudice is a different one...”

“I cannot really endorse Planck's philosophy, even if it is logically valid and even though I respect the human attitudes to which it gives rise. Einstein's conception is closer to mine. His God is somehow involved in the immutable laws of nature. Einstein has a feeling for the central order of things. He can detect it in the simplicity of natural laws. We may take it that he felt this simplicity very strongly and directly during his discovery of the theory of relativity. Admittedly, this is a far cry from the contents of religion. I don't believe Einstein is tied to any religious tradition, and I rather think the idea of a personal God is entirely foreign to him. But as far as he is concerned there is no split between science and religion: the central order is part of the subjective as well as the objective realm, and this strikes me as being a far better starting point.”