Einstein..

S

SnakeLord

snakeystew.com
Valued Senior Member
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080513122249.m3ds3b6j&show_article=1

Einstein - "The word 'God' is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses..."

Time and time again Einstein has been mentioned in discussion as if somehow a smart guy believing in sky fairies makes it more real. Time and time again we have had to point out that Einstein did not believe in a god. Here is the latest on the issue.

Enjoy.
 
If Einstein was a theist would the atheists disregard his contributions?
The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer.

— Albert Einstein
in Goldman, p. vii
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I was barked at by numerous dogs who are earning their food guarding ignorance and superstition for the benefit of those who profit from it. Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source. They are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who—in their grudge against the traditional "opium of the people"—cannot bear the music of the spheres. The Wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human moral and human aims.

— Einstein to an unidentified adressee, Aug.7, 1941. Einstein Archive, reel 54-927, quoted in Jammer, p. 97
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You find it strange that I consider the comprehensibility of the world (to the extent that we are authorized to speak of such a comprehensibility) as a miracle or an eternal mystery. Well a priori one should expect a chaotic world which cannot be grasped by the mind in anyway. One could (yes one should) expect the world to be subjected to law only to the extent that we order it through our intelligence. Ordering of this kind would be like the alphabetical ordering of the words of a language. By contrast, the kind of order created by Newton's theory of gravitation, for instance, is wholly different. Even if the axioms of the theory are proposed by man, the success of such a project presupposes a high degree of ordering of the objective world, and this could not be expected a priori. That is the "miracle" which is being constantly re-enforced as our knowledge expands.

There lies the weaknesss of positivists and professional atheists who are elated because they feel that they have not only successfully rid the world of gods but "bared the miracles." (That is, explained the miracles. - ed.) Oddly enough, we must be satisfied to acknowledge the "miracle" without there being any legitimate way for us to approach it . I am forced to add that just to keep you from thinking that --weakened by age--I have fallen prey to the clergy …

— From a letter to Maurice Solovine; see Goldman, p. 24
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The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive. However, I am also not a "Freethinker" in the usual sense of the word because I find that this is in the main an attitude nourished exclusively by an opposition against naive superstition. My feeling is insofar religious as I am imbued with the consciousness of the insuffiency of the human mind to understand deeply the harmony of the Universe which we try to formulate as "laws of nature." It is this consciousness and humility I miss in the Freethinker mentality. Sincerely yours, Albert Einstein.

—Letter to A. Chapple, Australia, February 23, 1954; Einstein Archive 59-405; also quoted in Nathan and Norden, Einstein on Peace P. 510
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When asked whether he believes in the God of Spinoza, Einstein is supposed to have replied as follows:
I can't answer with a simple yes or no. I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza's pantheism, but admire even more his contributions to modern thought because he is the first philosopher to deal with the soul and the body as one, not two separate things.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion/print

Einstein penned the letter on January 3 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. The letter went on public sale a year later and has remained in private hands ever since.

In the letter, he states: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."

Einstein, who was Jewish and who declined an offer to be the state of Israel's second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God's favoured people.

"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
 
S.A.M. said:
If Einstein was a theist would the atheists disregard his contributions?
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People believe Einstein's ideas about physics because they have been very thoroughly tested by experimentation. If they hadn't been supported by experiments, people wouldn't pay too much attention to him. Things that he said about religion that can't be tested by any sort of experiment are of little relevance to anyone.
 
Nasor said:
People believe Einstein's ideas about physics because they have been very thoroughly tested by experimentation. If they hadn't been supported by experiments, people wouldn't pay too much attention to him. Things that he said about religion that can't be tested by any sort of experiment are of little relevance to anyone.
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Except people like Einstein. Duh!

I'm guessing you're one of the "positivists and professional atheists "
 
Nasor said:
Obviously. The point is that there's no particular reason for anyone to look to Einstein for religious advice, because his isn't likely to be any better than anyone else's.
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I disagree. I think how people profess their faith says a great deal about them, about their faith or religion and also determines to a great deal how they see other people. So everyone's idea of religion is significant.
 
He couldn't accept some of the implications of Quantum Mechanics either. Even very smart people don't know everything. I think his ideas about God were nuanced, not really supporting traditional religion, but not rejecting it as a useful metaphor.
 
spidergoat said:
He couldn't accept some of the implications of Quantum Mechanics either. Even very smart people don't know everything. I think his ideas about God were nuanced, not really supporting traditional religion, but not rejecting it as a useful metaphor.
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I doubt he used it as a metaphor, thats a dishonest interpretation. He did not consider himself an orthodox theist, but he did not consider himself an atheist or pantheist either.
 
S.A.M. said:
If Einstein was a theist would the atheists disregard his contributions?

Of course not. We judge by results, not by what claims are made



When asked whether he believes in the God of Spinoza, Einstein is supposed to have replied as follows:
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You have already had an answer to this.
 
I think the news write up in the OP link shows how Einsteins words are being exploited by atheists. For shame.

Why did they not include that he also said I am not an atheist?
 
Because the letter proved he was? Letter is up for grabs at an auction...

Look, he was smarter than advertise it back in the 40s-50s...
 
Syzygys said:
Because the letter proved he was? Letter is up for grabs at an auction...

Look, he was smarter than advertise it back in the 40s-50s...
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Sure, and when he said he was not an atheist he was only kidding.

He was right about them too:

Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source. They are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who—in their grudge against the traditional "opium of the people"—cannot bear the music of the spheres. The Wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human moral and human aims.
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Carcano said:
Waiting for the afterlife.
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Yup that too. While atheists are slaving away since there is nothing to wait for.

Hmm now that I reconsider it, that has serious advantages. Being a theist I mean.

Or is it just me who sees the irony in atheists aspiring to a more meaningful existence? :D
 
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