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The Political Asylum
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| Was Albert Einstein? |
| An atheist |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| An agnostic |
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33% |
[ 1 ] |
| A humanist |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Undecided |
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66% |
[ 2 ] |
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| Total Votes : 3 |
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Vintage Girl
Moderator
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 3434
Location: Essex, England
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 Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 8:16 pm Post subject: Did Albert Einstein believe in God? |
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| The Telegraph on 13/05/08 wrote: | Albert Einstein regarded religions as "childish" and "primitive legends", a private letter he wrote a year before his death has revealed.
The great scientist's views on religion have long been debated, with many seizing upon phrases such as "He [God] does not throw dice" as evidence that he believed in a creator.
But the newly-unveiled letter, a response to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, has cast doubt on the theory that Einstein had any belief in God at all towards to the end of his life.
In the letter, dated January 3 1954, he wrote: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, 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 died the following year aged 76, did not spare Judaism from his criticism, believing Jewish people were in no way "chosen" by God.
He wrote: "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 better protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
The letter, which for decades has been in private hands, has come to light as it is to go on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair on Thursday. It is expected to sell for up to £8,000.
Educated at a Catholic primary school but given private tuition in Judaism, Einstein later wrote that the "religious paradise of youth" - when he believed what he was told - was quickly crushed when he started questioning religion at the age of 12.
He wrote: "The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression."
But many of his pronouncements appear to support a belief in a divine being, or at least a wish to believe in one. The same year he wrote the letter he also said he wanted to "experience the universe as a single cosmic whole". |
What is your opinion?
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adrien
Inmate of the Asylum
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 290
Location: France
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 1:25 pm Post subject: |
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I couldn't care less. My personnal opinion does not (strictly - I suppose I can't help being influenced...) depend on what famous people think or thought. And as an agnostic atheist, I'm not going to take any pride if Einstein was an atheist himself, nor am I going to change my views on God's existance if Einstein was a believer.
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JuanaLaLoca
A-cute schizophrenic
Joined: 27 Dec 2006
Posts: 1291
Location: New England
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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| What is an agnostic atheist? I know that an agnostic is not sure whether there is a God, and an atheist believes that there is no God, so how do you combine the two? |
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adrien
Inmate of the Asylum
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 290
Location: France
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I believe there is no god, but I'm not sure. 
In fact, in practice I'm an atheist. I don't believe in god, I don't pray, I don't go to church, I never did in fact. But in theory, I'm not sure God doesn't exist, so I'd better define myself as an agnostic. I don't really recognise myself in any of those definitions anyway. I like the words "apatheist" and "ignostic", depending on my mood.
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Sit on the banks of the river and wait for the corpse of your enemy. - Indian proverb. |
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wakeyboy
Inmate of the Asylum
Joined: 08 Jan 2007
Posts: 615
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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I think apatheist would describe most British people. No one really thinks about God, nor do they care. They find religion or god(s) irrelevant to their lives.
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Merak
Inmate of the Asylum
Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 214
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm undecided regards to what his beliefs were, but his letter makes very good reading and I'd agree with much of what it says. |
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BlueEmperor
Moderator
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1065
Location: Essex, England
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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I've never quite understood why this is such a hotly debated subject, as it always seemed to me perfectly clear that Professor Einstein was an agnostic who stated on many occasions that he did not believe in a personal God. He once said: "I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth" (I'm thinking here of that archdeacon of the militant atheist tendancy, Richard Dawkins).
Professor Einstein was once quoted, during a conversation with the German aristocrat Prince Hubertus of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (an early anti-Hitler campaigner, historian, politician and prominent Roman Catholic), as saying: "In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognise, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views."
B.E.
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