Einstein's View on Religion

[WSE]

In the note, written the year before his death, Einstein dismissed the idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as "pretty childish."
The letter, handwritten in German, is being sold by Bloomsbury Auctions on Thursday and is expected to fetch between $12,000 and $16,000.
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In it, Einstein said that "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."
"For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions."
Addressing the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Einstein wrote that "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 also 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"

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I am Jewish myself, but this letter does not offend me at all. I actually believe a lot of what Einstein is saying here. He says he belongs to the Jewish people, and is proud to, but a lot of the religious things he cannot believe to be true.

[ih8brady]

That's why he is the eponym for the Einstenian God, a metaphor for the numinous, what is not yet known in the universe. He dismissed the idea of a personal God, yet some wish to twist his words and defame his name.

[Tetragrammaton]

He's right.

[Miamian]

He's right.

Atheism is also considered a religion and saying that it's right is no different from a Bible-thumper.

[ih8brady]

Atheism is also considered a religion and saying that it's right is no different from a Bible-thumper.

Is not believing in ghosts a superstition? Is a lack of belief in Zeus a religion? Is not collecting stamps a hobby?

And low blow. Comparing the guy to a Christian conservative? Ouch
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[Blackocrates]

And low blow. Comparing the guy to a Christian conservative? Ouch
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[Miamian]

Is not believing in ghosts a superstition? Is a lack of belief in Zeus a religion? Is not collecting stamps a hobby?

And low blow. Comparing the guy to a Christian conservative? Ouch
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Religion is scientifically defined as a belief system that answers ultimate questions and atheism's answer is that the end is the end. If someone wants to say that he doesn't collect anything as his hobby, fine.

The thing here is that he said that his perspective is right. Therefore, another's is wrong.

[LouPhinFan]

Reviewing is quotes through the years it shows a pattern on this subject. Einstein said the following:

God does not play dice.

God always takes the simplest way.

Perhaps his most famous quote:

I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.

I think this quote sums up his beliefs on God:

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Clearly he wasn't an atheist, he just rejected the God that he feels that mankind has created via religion and theology. He put his own belief in its place.

[Tetragrammaton]

atheism's answer is that the end is the end.

You are telling me what I believe. And it isn't true.

Not believing is not a belief. It doesn't take faith to not believe, it just takes a desire for evidence.

If Einstein said Santa doesn't exist, and I said he was right, would I be in the same predicament?

[ih8brady]

Reviewing is quotes through the years it shows a pattern on this subject. Einstein said the following:





Perhaps his most famous quote:



I think this quote sums up his beliefs on God:



Clearly he wasn't an atheist, he just rejected the God that he feels that mankind has created via religion and theology. He put his own belief in its place.

I don't know of Einstein ever describing himself as an atheist but it would be disingenuous to call him a believer or theist. See my first post about the Einsteinian God. It's an impersonal way of describing what we don't yet know.