Einstein versus Tagore

The science and religion debate in Britain is often framed around Christianity and atheism. But what began as a Western conversation has increasingly become an encounter between science and all the major systems of thought, especially the Hindu tradition with its rich and varied range of philosophies. This was the subject of a lecture I delivered recently at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, organised by The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion as part of its programme of research seminars.

The clash of belief systems is illustrated nowhere better than in the encounters between Albert Einstein, and Bengali poet, artist and Nobel Prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore, who met four times in the 1920s and 30s. As they talked, the crux of their disagreement was that Einstein believed “truth is independent of our consciousness ... For instance, if nobody is in this house, yet that table remains where it is.” But Tagore had different ideas: “Science has proved that the table as a solid object is an appearance, and therefore that which the human mind perceives as a table would not exist if the mind were naught.”

Tagore believed that "relationship" is foundational to reality and that a table has no meaning apart from collective human consciousness and God, who was inextricably bound up with it. Einstein, on the other hand, wanted "bedrock" for several reasons which included the "shifting sands" he attributed to quantum uncertainty (Heisenberg had just elaborated his Uncertainty Principle).

The discussion between the two of them was the culmination of a century in which science had been assimilated into educated Indian society. During this period several Indian scientists had received Nobel Prizes for science and Tagore had received one for English literature.

Recalling this exchange, and the context in which it occurred, can give us an important perspective on today’s most pressing issues. The Western science/religion dialogue must broaden to take into account views and methodologies more characteristic of other traditions such as those of the Hindu and Buddhist religions of South Asia. As the global role of India—and its important scientific community—continues to grow, it is important for familiar debates to become less Western-centric.

Dr David Gosling teaches ecology at Cambridge University. He is author of The Indian Tradition: When Einstein met Tagore.