I posted Einstein's quoted words. You posted what other's thought about him. Which do you think represents him more ? His own opinion or other's opinion of him ? The fact remains, Einstein believed in a higher power. As far as the scope of the higher power, our minds are too limited to explain it.
Nice of you to bring this up. God does not give you what you want. He gave you a mind and it is up to you what you choose to do with it.So how does prayer work you ask ? Does prayer get answered ? Could it be that perhaps once one starts putting their mind to something and repeating it over and over, the natural laws of the universe take over. Every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought. So when someone uses their own mind, and makes choices that hurt other people, why do you say God is at fault ?
Actually, no. You quoted a journalist's "recollection" of his words. It is the theists who violently disagreed with him that responded to his actual words.
From a letter he wrote "In the Summer of 1945, just before the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein wrote a short letter stating his position as an atheist (Figure 1). Ensign Guy H. Raner had written Einstein from mid-Pacific requesting a clarification on the beliefs of the world famous scientist (Figure 2). Four years later Raner again wrote Einstein for further clarification and asked "Some people might interpret (your letter) to mean that to a Jesuit priest, anyone not a Roman Catholic is an atheist, and that you are in fact an orthodox Jew, or a Deist, or something else. Did you mean to leave room for such an interpretation, or are you from the viewpoint of the dictionary an atheist; i.e., 'one who disbelieves in the existence of a God, or a Supreme Being'?" Einstein's response is shown in Figure 3." His response to the letter "From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.... I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our being."
Bitter? Negative? Not at all. I think positive thinking is a very good thing, so long as it is grounded in reality. I just don't expect the universe to align behind me. Are you perhaps bitter at the notion that a supernatural being is not looking after you?
I'd say that the probability of alien life forms visiting Earth from another galaxy is rather remote, when you consider that the distance is measured in light years. But that's just my guess. Do I believe there are other life forms in the universe? Given its immense size as we currently understand it, I would guess that the chances are fairly good that life exists elsewhere in one form or another. Again, just guessing.