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LONDON — Albert Einstein: arch rationalist or scientist with a spiritual core?
A letter being auctioned in London this week adds more fuel to the long-simmering debate about the Nobel prize-winning physicist's religious views.
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.
Einstein, who helped unravel the mysteries of the universe with his theory of relativity, expressed complex and arguably contradictory views on faith, perceiving a universe suffused with spirituality while rejecting organized religion.
The letter up for sale, written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954, suggests his views on religion did not mellow with age.
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."
Bloomsbury spokesman Richard Caton said the auction house was "100 percent certain" of the letter's authenticity.
It is being offered at auction for the first time, by a private vendor.
John Brooke, emeritus professor of science and religion at Oxford University, said the letter lends weight to the notion that "Einstein was not a conventional theist" — although he was not an atheist, either.
"Like many great scientists of the past, he is rather quirky about religion, and not always consistent from one period to another," Brooke said.
Born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1879, Einstein said he went through a devout phase as a child before beginning to question conventional religion at the age of 12.
In later life, he expressed a sense of wonder at the universe and its mysteries — what he called a "cosmic religious feeling" — and famously said: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
But, he also said: "I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."
Brooke said Einstein believed that "there is some kind of intelligence working its way through nature. But it is certainly not a conventional Christian or Judaic religious view."
Einstein's most famous legacy is the special theory of relativity, which makes the point that a large amount of energy could be released from a tiny amount of matter, as expressed in the equation E=MC2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared).
The theory changed the face of physics, allowing scientists to make predictions about space and paving the way for nuclear power and the atomic bomb.
Einstein's musings on science, war, peace and God helped make him world famous, and his scientific legacy prompted Time magazine to name him its Person of the 20th Century.
Chris, this is a fascinating subject. As a human being who knows he still has a lot to learn, I keep an open mind and process what comes in, what stays in, and what, after some thought, is rejected.
Einstein also wrote:
"In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, 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.
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."
And Kierkegaard says:
"Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further."
The noble route is to step outside the religion/anti-religion scrap.
(So much for nobility. I'm a President! Those mystic religious crack heads have problems! You ever see them talking in tongues? Wow, they are retarded. I like how they take marriage advice from someone that isn't even allowed to be with a girl. Then you have the ceremonies with the cute little outfits and smoke... so entertaining. Wine and cookies? Count me in you child molesting joker, you! God me, God me, God me up, hallelujah!)
I don't think that this country is ready for a switch from religion to science just yet but it's happening very slowly. This is somewhat like switching to hi-def tv's; it's going to take time. The difference is that the benefits are highly disputed, aren't as visible, and can't be forced. Even though, the evidence of the switch is clear and inevitable.
Our culture relies more and more on evidence rather than faith or belief. It's a switch that is slowly occurring.
Sadly, this can't be said for muslim cultures which seem to be headed in the opposite direction. (Good for them! Everyone should be allowed to make their own mistakes.)
A couple of things here. Einstein's view that God does not punish evil and reward good could be argued against on evolutionary grounds - that evil is not sustainable whereas good is. Non-replication is the evidentiary equivalent of damnation. And Ralphinlaos, great to see your quote from Kierkegaard. His idea of the existential leap of faith as the basis of life is very profound, and did influence Einstein.
