| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/13/2008 7:21:14 AM | I love this guy even more, now....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/13/peopleinscience.religion
An abridgement of the letter from Albert Einstein to Eric Gutkind from Princeton in January 1954, translated from German by Joan Stambaugh. It will be sold at Bloomsbury auctions on Thursday
... I read a great deal in the last days of your book, and thank you very much for sending it to me. What especially struck me about it was this. With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common.
... 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. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions 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 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.
In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew the priviliege of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision, probably as the first one. And the animistic interpretations of the religions of nature are in principle not annulled by monopolisation. With such walls we can only attain a certain self-deception, but our moral efforts are not furthered by them. On the contrary.
Now that I have quite openly stated our differences in intellectual convictions it is still clear to me that we are quite close to each other in essential things, ie in our evalutations of human behaviour. What separates us are only intellectual 'props' and 'rationalisation' in Freud's language. Therefore I think that we would understand each other quite well if we talked about concrete things. With friendly thanks and best wishes
Yours, A. Einstein | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/13/2008 9:23:20 AM | | The story is consistent with Einstein's admiration of the philosophical worldview of Spinoza, who placed the divine sphere in nature. Spinoza's ideas are complex and subtle, but Einstein seemed to find a resonance there with his own views. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/13/2008 9:39:39 AM | um ... hate to say it but even einstein made mistakes sometimes... the possibility of time travel.. and the "mythed statement of god"...
religion was created to explain forces of nature that we couldnt as intulectual beings... the wind water sun ect.. even buddism "the attempt to explain the ability of controlling ones own brain" oddly enough it formed into a higher governing body (on autopilot) wich says if you do wrong you will be punished in the worst way possible and rewarded for good.. there is no doubt that it worked pre digital age but now religion is being out done by the wars it is creating.... even with america... iraq is quickly becoming a religious war...
the other is the time travel... light travels at a set rate ... lets say 1mph... your vessel travels 3mph if you travel out from a point with your twin staying at that point... you will "travel"
into the past... but it is only a visual representation of that... "ie the star exploded 100 years ago, but we'll see it explode today" .... when you travel back to your point of origin your twin has not aged at all... i mean not 3 times older not even a minute older | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/13/2008 4:13:08 PM | But my this letter has made waves huh? A thread here, a thread on the religion side and it's in at least one other... Oh well, it's good to spread the truth of these things but while we're at it we may as well let folks know that he did have alot of respect for Buddhism.
"Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in the cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogma and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity."
--Einstein.
"If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it would be Buddhism"
--Einstein.
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/13/2008 9:16:28 PM | Buddhism is pretty sweet. Einstein may have liked it more everyday.
I heard Buddhism has 10 paths. 2 more after the 8 which are acquired from the proper balance of the 8.
I wonder if the 2 following paths are having to do with states similar to technology and virtual reality.
The 9th is right knowledge and the 10th is right liberation.
I am no Buddhist though.
There was some fellow who said we simply will never be capable of physically exploring the universe. The more we learn about it, the more we realize we can't be equipped to do it. And then we'll find better ways to explore through simulation. Simulation is probably the most energy conservative way of exploration. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/13/2008 10:35:43 PM | ... how can you simulate that wich you cannot fathom?
travel is quickly becoming a possibility... ask the virgin company owner wich is dumping LARGE ammounts of money into the space industry ... as well as building the first "space port" an advancement to the better en itself... the muse to make others think about travel beyond current means.. didnt i just explain buddhism? along with religion in a whole? i know it has no point of a harmfull nature but it is still a medium for something wich can be explained... we have the technology to make you capable of the "nirvana" tho it is still in its early stages.... no lies read up on it... we have alot of tecnology that disproves many basis of religion ... good luck finding it... because if someone does put it out for the whole of the public ... they will become marters (maby not the right term)... ever wonder why science has alsways throught history been critisized by relogion? | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/13/2008 10:54:56 PM | I'm going to have to go with this one...
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
~ Albert Einstein
I would also have to disagree with the whole simulation idea. How could we possibly simulate an experience that we don't have the perception to comprehend in the first place. We still have a long way to go to create tools that might be able to help us interpret the world around us. The giant hadron collider at CERN and our resources invested in space exploration are steps in this direction. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/14/2008 2:56:16 AM |
There was some fellow who said we simply will never be capable of physically exploring the universe. The more we learn about it, the more we realize we can't be equipped to do it.
People say alot of things... It's a good thing the Wright Brothers never listened to that sort of thing... Naysayers don't really contribute too much to progression. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/14/2008 6:26:43 AM | I think what the fellow was driving at, was that ultimately it would be more energy efficient to explore through simulation. Something about sending little devices into space that would relay information back to us to feed simulation programs that could allow anyone to explore space virtually.
It was really neat sounding. People with augmented brains could process information so quickly they could virtually explore and do lots of things while the outside world barely passed by. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/14/2008 1:40:53 PM | Oh, ok... That's a little different... We could still explore space and send these devices on ahead for charting purposes and virtual space exploration would naturally follow.
I hope so because I'm likely one of the ones who won't be able to afford the real deal. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/14/2008 3:32:36 PM | Religion is brainwashed schizophrenia
(I originally coined that phrase) SPREAD IT
Religion is brainwashed schizophrenia
Religion is brainwashed schizophrenia
Religion is brainwashed schizophrenia
Religion is brainwashed schizophrenia
Religion is brainwashed schizophrenia
Religion is brainwashed schizophrenia | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/15/2008 11:19:17 AM | Ironically, both psychoanalysis and relativity are discussed in the Jewish religion.
The calculations of Jacob's journeys doesn't appear to add up, and appear to show that one journey took Jacob far too short a time to be possible, and is explained by a "Kfitzat HaDerech", a "compression of the road", as if the road itself compressed into a shorter space, that allowed Jacob to make the journey faster, relative to us. There are other examples of extensions of objects, as if the objects became longer. This sounds suspiciously like Einstein's relativity.
After I spent a few years in Yeshiva, I read the introduction to one of Freud's books. I think it was The Interpretation of Dreams. At the bottom, Freud wrote that he couldn't understand why the Rabbis never taught anything about psychology. I creased up at that point, because there was so much of Talmudic Law that was based on psychology, that it would be really difficult in avoiding it.
What Freud and Einstein also both had in common was that they came from Germany. It was well-known that German Jews were mostly in the German Reform movement, that re-explained Jewish tradition in terms of German philosophy, and ignored much of traditional Jewish sources of philosophy. Einstein even went to a Catholic school. Neither appeared to have much contact with Jewish religious intellectual philosophy as part of their education.
So I really can only wonder what they would have made of religion if they had actually learned about their own religion in even a tenth as much depth as they devoted to Physics and Medicine. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/15/2008 4:24:39 PM | | thanks for posting caffeine7 ,annoys me when religious people quote Einstein's famous phrase "god does not play dice with the universe " as if he was one of them . | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/16/2008 7:54:57 AM | | Change all the dollar bills to say "In Einstein We Trust". At least we have a working knowledge of the guy...kinda...not like that mythelogical spook that lives in the air...whatzizname.... | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/16/2008 9:28:16 AM | ...not like that mythelogical spook that lives in the air...whatzizname....
ya,that spook wants us to believe in peace,love and kindness.it wants us to forgive those who hate!!! if it were real i would hang him from a cross and....... | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/16/2008 10:33:35 PM | | I don't believe in a god nor devil myself.I don't believe in a chosen people.I guess the Jews wrote the book though.Why not make yourself the "chosen".Americans should have wrote it so we could be the "chosen":)I think Einstein was truly a wise man. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/17/2008 11:27:36 AM |
Change all the dollar bills to say "In Einstein We Trust". At least we have a working knowledge of the guy...kinda...not like that mythelogical spook that lives in the air...whatzizname....
I've heard some refer to him as the "Great Sky Fairy"  | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/17/2008 1:36:04 PM | Lets look at it this way. Could any scientist worth his salt really take the idea of a 'god' off the table?
Whether there is a supreme being who created everything or not, to discount the idea as an impossability means that you're no longer seeking the truth with an open mind.
I think Enstein was speaking more of religious verse than the idea of god. | |
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| What Einstein REALLY thought about religion....
Posted: 5/17/2008 4:34:48 PM |
Could any scientist worth his salt really take the idea of a 'god' off the table?
Actually, yes. The largest percentage of atheists in the States is among scientists. I doubt that their credibility as scholars is related to their beliefs.
But look at the question of whether a supreme being created the universe. If your answer is yes, you believe that He did, then you are faced with exactly the same question. Then who created God? If your answer to that is that he's always existed, then to a scientist isn't it just as likely that the universe in some form always existed?
So that's how anyone, not necessarily a scientist, can in their opinion take God off the table.
Besides, scientists require proof, of which there is none by the metrics they would use to prove that He does exist.
Quoting Einstein:
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses
These particular words to me do not refer to simply religious verse....However, it should not matter what Einstein thought; everyone has their own beliefs and, genius or not, he was as much in the dark about these matters as the rest of us. | |
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