Einstein’s Views On Religion
God … Science …
Science … God
When someone, such as Einstein, seeks to find empirical reason and logic to everything seen and unseen in scientific terms and mathematical jargon, imagine the paradox such a complex mind as Einstein’s struggles with. The concept of ’simplicity’ is unheard of …
Some celestial event. No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should’ve sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful… I had no idea. (scientist Ellie Arroway, Contact … upon seeing the Universe firsthand)
Childish superstition: Einstein’s letter makes view of religion relatively clear …
Scientist’s reply to sell for up to £8,000, and stoke debate over his beliefs
by James Randerson, science correspondent
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” So said Albert Einstein, and his famous aphorism has been the source of endless debate between believers and non-believers wanting to claim the greatest scientist of the 20th century as their own.
A little known letter written by him, however, may help to settle the argument - or at least provoke further controversy about his views.
Due to be auctioned this week in London after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, the document leaves no doubt that the theoretical physicist was no supporter of religious beliefs, which he regarded as “childish superstitions”.
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.”
The letter will go on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair on Thursday and is expected to fetch up to £8,000. The handwritten piece, in German, is not listed in the source material of the most authoritative academic text on the subject, Max Jammer’s book Einstein and Religion.
One of the country’s leading experts on the scientist, John Brooke of Oxford University, admitted he had not heard of it.
Einstein is best known for his theories of relativity and for the famous E=mc2 equation that describes the equivalence of mass and energy, but his thoughts on religion have long attracted conjecture.
His parents were not religious but he attended a Catholic primary school and at the same time received private tuition in Judaism. This prompted what he later called, his “religious paradise of youth”, during which he observed religious rules such as not eating pork. This did not last long though and by 12 he was questioning the truth of many biblical stories.
“The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression,” he later wrote.
In his later years he referred to a “cosmic religious feeling” that permeated and sustained his scientific work. In 1954, a year before his death, he spoke of wishing to “experience the universe as a single cosmic whole”. He was also fond of using religious flourishes, in 1926 declaring that “He [God] does not throw dice” when referring to randomness thrown up by quantum theory.
His position on God has been widely misrepresented by people on both sides of the atheism/religion divide but he always resisted easy stereotyping on the subject.
“Like other great scientists he does not fit the boxes in which popular polemicists like to pigeonhole him,” said Brooke. “It is clear for example that he had respect for the religious values enshrined within Judaic and Christian traditions … but what he understood by religion was something far more subtle than what is usually meant by the word in popular discussion.”
Despite his categorical rejection of conventional religion, Brooke said that Einstein became angry when his views were appropriated by evangelists for atheism. He was offended by their lack of humility and once wrote. “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”
GuardianUK
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Newton had no trouble believing in God, in fact he did more writing regarding his belief in God and theology than science. Everyone has heard of Newton but few realize just how important he was and still is. If someone was to force rank Newton compared to all other scientists I would beleive that overall he is the greatest of all time. All he did was accomplished before the light bulb and even the slide rule.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:08 pm“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.”
Yet these weak human minds can discern the workings of the universe and extend our collective understanding of it?
Einstein was a great scientist, whose views in the realm of physics should be respected, but he was neither theologian, nor philosopher. His understanding of religion and of philosophical issues is so simplistic, that it verges on childish, but, by his own admission, he was no authority on the matter, either. You don’t go to a physicist on issues of religious studies, as you wouldn’t go to chemist for a medical checkup. Their jobs may be connected to those other fields, but that doesn’t make them experts.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:13 pmGod told Moses, tell them “I AM” sent you when he referred to himself and whom Moses should say is telling the Pharoh to let His people go.
I AM will not allow Himself to be put in a box. FOr example, Genesis says male and female he created them in his own image… so God personifies both male and female attributes and He told Job the earth was round and Abraham the stars were not numberable…. so we error by not knowing the Scripture - even Einstein.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:19 pmYou can go to your college you can go to your school if you ain’t got Jesus you an educated fool and thats all I’ll tell you thats all—- you gotta have Jesus and I’ll tell you thats all
May 13th, 2008 at 3:30 amNewton’s world —> an apple
Einstein’s world —> cosmos
his perception of religion wasn’t of a dogmatic one, but more as a spiritual empathy for the universe ; a bit of the same spirit that inspired our Cromagnon ancestry in rupestral caverns
May 13th, 2008 at 3:43 amBet the little jooo has since come to an up close and personal understanding of the words, “wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
May 13th, 2008 at 3:47 amStiring it up, Drill? Everybody has an opinion on GOD, it depends on up bringing, amount of religion taught, and your morality. I’m a lazy Catholic, Hagee says I worship with the Great Whore. Why would I want to be a Baptist, no beer, no dance, That would suck.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:43 amThe Declaration of Indepedence is a better base for morality than religion. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,”. It transcends religion, and doesn’t matter what, if any, faith or personal god you believe in.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:01 amI guess I’ll show my skepticism now. Everytime one of these “letters” miraculously shows up, I have to wonder how real and what is the agenda.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:09 amYou must realize that Newton is the inventor of calculus and advanced mathematics and half of physics is named after him, Newtonian physics. If there was no Newton, there would have been no Einstein. And BTW, why is it that the mythical Cromagnon man went extinct, along with Neanderthal and every other supposed transitionary organism, but yet their ancestors and decendents both seemed to survive? In addition, if one does a careful look, every single fossil of an alleged ancestor to man has either been disproven, a fraud or has serious flaws but are still being purported as real. Take Nebraska man, turns out the tooth being used to reconstruct the entire skull belonged to that of the muslims favorite animal, a pig. And the famed Peking Man, all traces of him have disappeared like morning mist.
Our understanding of the true nature of matter is limited. We have gotten down to the level of quarks but lack the equipement to keep going and thusly some are suggesting an entire new way of looking at matter needs to be developed. Science for decades also beleived that light traveled at a constant velocity and now we know that’s not true either. And because of this, Einsteins theory of relativity is also being reanalyzed as well.
Lastly, our understanding of universe is only scratching the surface. Everything from how the sun works to the workings of the gravity are still a mystery. When I finished grad school I had more questions about how the universe works than when I started and this is actually quite common.
We owe a tremendous amount to Einstein but just because he held a certain opinion regarding the afterlife and the Creator of the universe doesn’t sway mine whatsoever.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:29 amI go to a United Reformed Church and I brew my own beer and would make my own cigars if tobacco grew in California. John Calvin, one of the fathers of the Reformed perspective on scripture was at times paid in beer.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:30 am“Looking for God–or Heaven–by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare’s plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters…”
C.S. Lewis
May 13th, 2008 at 6:40 amPr Bill
“You must realize that Newton is the inventor of calculus and advanced mathematics and half of physics is named after him”
yeah, as each stupid French that attended school
“And BTW, why is it that the mythical Cromagnon man went extinct, along with Neanderthal and every other supposed transitionary organism, but yet their ancestors and decendents both seemed to survive?”
a guess, the human creation occured 6000 years ago
though according to a french stupid fellow : in the middle of XIXth century, Alcide d’Orbigny assured that the Earth had almost crossed 24 to 26 successive creations, followed with equal numbers of catastrophes that each time made the whole animal life disappearing… kinda fantasy though
May 13th, 2008 at 7:14 amsteve m, when was the last time that you had a proper thought ?
May 13th, 2008 at 7:15 amHagee is a douchebag.
I think scientists look for logical solutions for everything, it is in their nature and their minds demand proof. That doesn’t necessarily preclude faith, but it can’t help either. When I was young, I felt that way, ‘where’s the beef?’. I wanted proof, but I think really I just wanted justification for being nihilistic.
It seems illogical, but as I have gotten older I feel like I need Jesus more and more, the more I learn, the more I need Him.
Once I got past me, me, me, (still working on it really) and found that I could lay down my heavy load by having faith, made me stronger than before. If that is childish, then I suggest everyone start acting like kids again.
I often pray:
Dear Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.
That would include Einstein…
May 13th, 2008 at 7:50 am“steve m, when was the last time that you had a proper thought ? ”
Help me out here bash or drill. That’s some pretty sanctimonious shit out of a moral relativist lib that’s posted previously that it doesn’t believe in God ….in a posting on religion and God.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:58 am`But you have to realize science is based on observable evidence and calculations. for instance if there is 5 apples in a bucket one day and you come the next day and find 3. using logic you can assume someone ate them or something. or had simply taken them. but religion is based on “faith” faith is believing without seeing. so there is no evidence for anything “supernatural” such as fate.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:15 am“steve m, when was the last time that you had a proper thought ? ”
Help me out here bash or drill. That’s some pretty sanctimonious shit out of a moral relativist lib that’s posted previously that it doesn’t believe in God ….in a posting on religion and God.
———————————————————–
In that smog-filled realm of moral relativism I find those who live and worship there more often than not suffer from a
form of Tourette’s Syndrome that causes the inflicted to spout-off such “sanctimonious shit” …
Unfortunately, there is NO cure for the ailment.
However … I would favor a detailed explanation of the term “proper thought” from the Underverse of moral relativism?
May 13th, 2008 at 9:17 amSully, wanna sanctimonious shit” …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j-OlodOhn4&feature=related
would that keep you busy for a while ?
May 13th, 2008 at 10:07 am“However … I would favor a detailed explanation of the term “proper thought” from the Underverse of moral relativism?”
Well there you go franchie… how bout it???
May 13th, 2008 at 10:10 amAll your morals come from Google and Wikipedia too??
Drill, the tourette syndrome is well shared by the moral unrelativist God believers too
apart his librarist mind, I hardly found a quote that wasn’t of Steve M
I must I missed Marc Twain for that one
May 13th, 2008 at 10:16 amOh sorry franchie…. completely missed the vid ya posted of yerself. Ya shore ar …..er, purdy.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:16 am“All your morals come from Google and Wikipedia too??”
comme toi, même mal, même remède :
http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html
na, the vid is thae woman that you have in your salon
May 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am
MoE the Atheist
Professor Bill
May 13th, 2008 at 10:30 amHi Moe, why do atheists always restrict their science religion
with the prerequisite of observable fact? (I actually know the answer) To go through life without making the correlation that there is more than meets the eye to this experience called life, to me would be living as a computer, all calculating, no emotion. That brings up the reason why emotion exists, did it evolve? whats it’s purpose? (a good discussion for you and your mate over a glass of wine)
I love it when you wax eloquent. (intransitive)
Yeah, just as i expected. Still taking your morals from the same place you get everything else… the internet.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:42 amNow how about expanding on that morality from the “underverse” you live in. Show off some of that thar larnin!!
We’ve got one condescending “five apples in a bucket” atheist viewpoint. Let’s hear YOUR take on “proper thought”.
`But you have to realize science is based on observable evidence and calculations. for instance if there is 5 apples in a bucket one day and you come the next day and find 3. using logic you can assume someone ate them or something. or had simply taken them. but religion is based on “faith” faith is believing without seeing. so there is no evidence for anything “supernatural” such as fate.
There are no assumed parts of science? I don’t think so.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:45 amSully
Alltel underverse is OK by you ?
May 13th, 2008 at 10:57 amStop dodging franchie and answer the question.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:08 amGo ahead… from stanford.edu, google or wiki if ya gotta…
Franchie, I’ll ask the same..and, by the way, how big is that bug up your ass? Apparently, in Franchies opinion, even if you are well read, you must never quote others or cite their works….as she so readily does herself.
“You must realize that Newton is the inventor of calculus and advanced mathematics and half of physics is named after him” - Franchie
This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” - Isaac Newton
You must realize physics and calculus are just some of the Lords tools…He created them. It’s his handy work. Some folks have just been clever enough to “discover” them.
..I feel sorry for you Franchie…sitting there in that little boil on thew ass of europe you dwell in. Just because you have no belief in God, does not negate his existence. We who do realize something that isn’t apparent to you for your Darwinist head is limited by it’s own arrogance, blindness, and human secularism. Consider that we who do beleive, if we are wrong, in the end have lost nothing. If you are wrong in the end you have lost everything, and for all eternity as well. It’s your decision. Some people like to claim they beleive Jesus existed and that he was a good teacher, a prophet. But you cannot have it that way. When you examine His claims you either have to accept that He was who He said he was, or that He was a liar and/or a lunatic. It’s one or the other. I suggest while you sit there pondering your gaullic navel, in that once great part of the world, that you actually open and study The Word, read the New Testament. Study the life of Saul of Tarsus. Read C.S. Lewis…Ask yourself - Why would the remaining apostles suffer persecution and death they way they did when they could have easily just denied the whole “Christ” thing to spare their lives?…
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment”…oops sorry Franchie, there I go again..quoting someone else.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:11 amoh my Gawd, proper = mere
May 13th, 2008 at 11:17 amSteve m
“You must realize that Newton is the inventor of calculus and advanced mathematics and half of physics is named after him” - Franchie
do the polish preachers don’t need glasses ?
where did I made this “proper thought” ?
BTW, I am not apologing atheism or so, just that Einstein’s expression of a cosmic religious feeling could fit my “proper thoughts”
May 13th, 2008 at 11:23 amThere she goes again. Sharp as a bowling ball.
Oh, I did see your site and I must say that if my dog had a face like yours I would have to shave his ass and teach him to walk backwards.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:30 amsteve m, that’s a nice proper thought
May 13th, 2008 at 11:32 amSorry, my misquote from Prof Bill… quoting you quoting someone else…
Polish preachers?…Though my ancestry is Polish, I am not.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:33 amThanks…a compliment from you is highly prized indeed…
May 13th, 2008 at 11:34 amI have more compliments in my bucket than apples
might be the universal gravitation
May 13th, 2008 at 11:52 am“I have more compliments in my bucket than apples”
No you don’t.
And when it comes to a ’shooting war’ on “proper thought”, you shoot yourself in the face every time.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:59 amso the fooling game is still on
“And when it comes to a ’shooting war’ on “proper thought”, you shoot yourself in the face every time.”
a rotten apple proper thought
you followed my blog, you know all about my proper thoughts,
May 13th, 2008 at 12:07 pmI bet God hates being equated with “RELIGION”
Do you know, Noah had a nice supply of
on the Ark.
I am sure it made the cruise all the better
May 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pmI didn’t and don’t ‘follow your blog’. Looked once a year ago, its total incohency burned my eyes and brain and I never went back.
Now, like I asked, let’s hear your justification for moral relativism.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pmSully, when you will not cheat, and that is not for tomorrow I believe
May 13th, 2008 at 12:16 pmmore incoherency from its queen
May 13th, 2008 at 12:22 pmwhateva
May 13th, 2008 at 12:25 pmquite right.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pmyou’re as full of shit as the day is long.
fuckin poser.
I love you I am sorry
May 13th, 2008 at 12:33 pmFranchie
My apologies for my dog comment. It was uncalled for.
bon soir
May 13th, 2008 at 12:49 pmScience without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
To me that comment speaks of scientific Creationism, not evolution.
Johannes Kepler, Sir Issac Newton and Blaise Pascal were all scientific creationists.
Kepler I believe speaks for the aforementioned when he said of his scientific discoveries: “O, God I am thinking thy thoughts after thee”.
If great scientists like Kepler, Pascal and Newton believed in the partnership of Christianity and science, then what’s the problem today?
Perhaps it is because scientists are now their own gods with evolotion being just a metaphysical doctrine decked out in a lab coat; with no need of any god except maybe gaia.
Yeah, Mother Earth will save you alright. Here’s the reason for existence in science devoid of God:
“We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else’s home and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform to a set of prexisting cosmic rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We make the rules….We are responsible for nothing outside of ourselves for we are the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. (Jeremy Rifkin Algeny pg 244)”
So much “vain bablings” in evolution.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:51 pmstem m
your are forgiven
amigo ?
May 13th, 2008 at 12:54 pm“but religion is based on “faith” faith is believing without seeing. so there is no evidence for anything “supernatural” such as fate.” -Moe
Make no mistake Moe, it takes more faith to believe that life arose from non living chemicals than to believe that a supernatural being was involved in life. At the end of the day you must believe in the afore mentioned if you don’t believe in God, it’s the irreducible point. Either God, or non living chemicals and fanciful non-existent processes are responsible for life on earth. Life which varies from bacteria to mankind. Don’t you find it interesting that we as humans sit around and contemplate our own existence and purpose? We are unique in creation, no other organism does such a thing.
I saw the movie Expelled two weeks ago and although I am all to aware of the persecution towards those who don’t believe in evolution, which is present in institutions of higher learning, this movie will forever put to rest the notion that atheism is not a religion. Choosing to believe that is no God is still just as much a belief as mine that there is. Ben Stein also does a great job showing the profound lack of evidence to support evolution.
The world has been sold a bill of goods and so deceived into thinking that evolution and the big bangs are facts. In addition Stein also shows the relation between Darwin and Nazism and the same can be said for Communism. Equating man to animals makes it morally possible to purge the human gene pool of less desirables. That is precisely what the Eugenics movement sought to give us, a truly dark day in American medicine.
As a chemist I can tell you that evolution and the big bang violate every law of thermodynamics and every time Steven Hawking opens his mouth he comes up with an even more fanciful explanation because the previous one didn’t work out.
If you don’t want to live an existence like Pascal proposed with his wager that’s fine. But don’t come up with nonsense to support a preconceived notion and tell me it sound science.
Glad to know someone is listening.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:35 pmintellignt design vs materialim
http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.html
convenient strategy for a politicy though !
None argued that such an “intelligent design” explained what the people could not understand till the 18 th century.
from then science became an open-field for researches based on logic, doubt, repetition of experiences that corroborate a dicovering.
“the relation between Darwin and Nazism and the same can be said for Communism. Equating man to animals makes it morally possible to purge the human gene pool of less desirables.”
yeah, but Inquisition, and Torquemada fellows in south America, made also the so called “creation belivers” look not very christians
that said, evil is found in both theories
look for a missing link ?
http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/benton2.html
May 13th, 2008 at 3:32 pmtest
May 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pmintellignt design vs materialim
http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.html
convenient strategy for a politicy though !
None argued that such an “intelligent design” explained what the people could not understand till the 18 th century.
from then science became an open-field for researches based on logic, doubt, repetition of experiences that corroborate a dicovering.
“the relation between Darwin and Nazism and the same can be said for Communism. Equating man to animals makes it morally possible to purge the human gene pool of less desirables.”
yeah, but Inquisition, and Torquemada fellows in south America, made also the so called “creation belivers” look not very christians
that said, evil is found in both theories
look for a missing link ?
http : // www.actionbioscience. org/evolution/benton2.html
May 13th, 2008 at 3:36 pmwhat’s wrong that my post is lost ? my “love” isn’t in anymore though
intellignt design vs materialim
http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.html
convenient strategy for a politicy though !
None argued that such an “intelligent design” explained what the people could not understand till the 18 th century.
from then science became an open-field for researches based on logic, doubt, repetition of experiences that corroborate a dicovering.
“the relation between Darwin and Nazism and the same can be said for Communism. Equating man to animals makes it morally possible to purge the human gene pool of less desirables.”
yeah, but Inquisition, and Torquemada fellows in south America, made also the so called “creation belivers” look not very christians
that said, evil is found in both theories
May 13th, 2008 at 3:52 pmIn HIS Word, God has told us MANY are blind to Him.
They are blinded by their own arrogant pride.
All I can do is pray for the blind to see and be thankful that God has chosen to reveal himself to me…in things like… my cats paw, a clownfish, the SKY, American troops, with no fear of their own death invading Baghdad and releasing little Iraqi boys being held in prison by an evil dictator.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:16 pmI’ll pray for the soul of E=MC2.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
franchie
May 13th, 2008 at 10:11 pmThat Evidence of Evolutionary Transitions link is lame old non evidence.
the first link was spot on though, a clear indication that society does from time to time choose to devolve and then the marines are called in to clean up.
Mark Tanberg,
I find it also significant that the renewing with a “creation credo” coincided with the Reagan times
if you wanted to recall that the marines had to come in Europe in 1944, yes. They weren’t aware they were giving there life in a religious crusade though, but more in fighting a monster that ruined any “good” geopolitical project
yeah, I know that the evolutionary transitions link is the fighting horse argument for the Creationists… I am on the wrong computer, I’ll bring more argument links later on.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:28 amhttp://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/fundienazis/beyond_reason.htm
http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/fundienazis/25_answers.htm
May 14th, 2008 at 6:16 am