Looks like Einstein borrowed this saying from the German G.E. Lessing who more or less. said, "If there was one question I would like to ask the Egyptian Sphinx (who supposedly knew everything), 'Is the universe friendly?'
I like Tony's comments. I think life and death are part of one continuum; supernovas explode (star death) and eventually form other stars and planets, the heavy metals in our bodies have their genesis in these events. Anita Moorjani, on the cusp of death, with advanced cancer, and lymph nodes the size of lemons, had a near death experience, survived, recorded in her book, Dying to be Me (and her you tubes) completely free of cancer, to the amazement of her doctors. Another survivor of near death, expressed: "I no longer see things in terms of good and evil; sometimes now when I meditate, I feel in touch with everything in the universe, whether it is positive or negative; there is a spectrum of opposites and everything is necessary.' A man who was involved in a motor bike accident recounts, ' In the three days I was comatose, I was "shown" the unity of all life, all life, all matter is of the same substance, differing only in appearance, all life, all matter is Divine, Divinity does not exist outside of us, but within us,within all life; this event has forever changed the way I view this reality: the accident happened for a reason -everything happens for a reason; we are not always privy to it. The path to true Divinity is within.'
On Jul 18, 2020 Kenneth wrote on Is the Universe Friendly?, by Albert Einstein: