section_path: Religious views
section_name: Religious views
paragraph_text: Religious views
  
  Gödel believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological". He formulated a formal proof for the existence of God known as Gödel's ontological proof.
  
  Gödel believed in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this, independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing."
  
  In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are for the most part bad, but not religion itself." According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent idea of religion and open-minded."