What's to reconcile? You will find character flaws and chronic bad judgement in the most successful/accomplished people–it will just be in some other area than what they're known for.
John Calvin had a man burned at the stake. Henry Ford was an anti-semite. 8 of the first 10 US presidents owned slaves. And, no, I don't think it's a matter of shifting standards. Look at Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, etc.
Perhaps reconcile was the wrong word . . . I was looking at it more from the "here's a perfect person" image that some historical figures seem to have, versus the fact that everyone (no matter how history makes them out), is still just a flawed human like everyone else.
He may have been one of the most brilliant minds in the last 100 years, but apparently he had a love life that was just as messed up as the rest of us =)
Considering Einstein didn't kill anyone...he did OK. No one is a saint (except for maybe a saint, but then I've heard crazy things about Mother Teresa also).
Agnes Bojaxhiu aka mother theresa is one of the worst media scams out there. Portrayed as a saint, she was actually an extremist religious nutjob. I happen to have visited her hospice in Calcutta and was shocked to see its condition given the significant amount of donations being sent. Victims (not patients, they were poor uneducated rural folk being collected for display) were denied painkillers and modern medication because Agnes believed in the theology of suffering. A quick google will show you that Agnes managed to get most of the donations funnelled back to the Vatican, hence her beatification by the pope. I found the whole thing utterly disgusting and will never trust generic media representations of individuals.
I think this is a rational thing to do -- after all, he was fearful of what would happen should the Germans have completed their nuclear program first.
Sure, but there's a big moral weight on using your fame and influence to get your government to built atomic bombs. Though this was before the advent of strategic bombing, so I'm not sure how obvious it was to Einstein exactly how such a weapon would ever be used.
No he didn't. He understood the science - and wrote a highly-public letter to the president arguing it would be better for the US to build one than to have it dropped on them by the Germans - already at work. But he had no hand in building it. Keep in mind, Einstein would have been in his mid-60s during the war, and a German at that.
John Calvin had a man burned at the stake. Henry Ford was an anti-semite. 8 of the first 10 US presidents owned slaves. And, no, I don't think it's a matter of shifting standards. Look at Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, etc.