If you read ALL of Albert's quotes, it is a bit ambiguous whether he did or didn't thing religion was relevant. He seems to have wavered form one interview to another.

Yes, I understand about mass & energy and the relevance of the **hypothesis** about energy being ...ummm... 'eternal'. But IF you assume that "eternal energy" therfore implies a 'creator', you merely reduce the question to "why, or how, could an 'infinite creator' exist in the first place? And what is IT's cause?"
Maybe one does....it is not something I can investigate or 'know'. That is where I say "I do not 'need' to try to answer that. Those who claim 'the answer' tend to do some very awkward things with it and to each other.
I have read Kierkegaard, Kant, the Bible..(several of them).. and attended 5-6 different churches. They all purported to have some sort of answer... I'm waiting for the clouds to part and the 'right' answer to appear in the sky. I'm not holding my breath, 'cause I don't look good in blue.