QUOTE:"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."
I thought it was common knowlege Einstein was an atheist.
'To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious.' In this sense I too am religious, with the reservation that 'cannot grasp' does not have to mean 'forever ungraspable.' But I prefer not to call myself religious because it is misleading. It is destructively misleading because, for the vast majority of people, 'religion' implies 'supernatural'. Carl Sagan put it well: '...if by "God" one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. this God is emotionally unsatisfying...it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.'
He actually had his own beliefs for when he used the term "God." He wasn't agnostic in the sense that he didn't believe there was no way we could tell for sure whether there was or wasn't a devine creator.
Blah that was alot of negatives, but you get the point.
#7 ...you clearly said said in #5 "I thought it was common knowlege Einstein was an atheist."
and now your saying what you said in post #7? get your facts straight, he was an agnostic
In a 1950 letter to M. Berkowitz, Einstein stated that "My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.
#9 I'm agnostic myself so I got nothing against him being known as agnostic, but most people would have consider him athiest with the way he defines his view of a divine creator. I really wasn't lookin to get TOO involved in his believe struture on gotfrag so sorry for the confusion.
""My position concerning God is that of an agnostic." I guess thats pretty black and white there.
#4 Newton was the most religious person you would ever find, and if it wasn't for him being religious he would have never made multiple absolutely huge breakthroughs in the field of science (wouldn't have discovered gravity, calculated the orbit of the planets, sun center of solar system, and would have never invented calculus to be able to calculate said planetal orbits).
If a guy invents his own form of math just so he isn't held back, well that's just about as smart as you can get.
his statement isn't definitive of his own beliefs about god. the statement indicates his belief about the purpose of religion with relation to science, and the purpose of science with relation to religion. in that statement, einstein makes the argument that religion and science need each other, to give purpose to each other. nothing more, nothing less.
"only a fool looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." - ulysses everett mcgill
Religion imo is there so intelectually weak and mentally retarded thus dangerous folks would be scared shitless doing anything wrong. Nice tool for criminal reduction within one nation, but not so nice for international hate reduction.
#22 I think you should read about Newton, or most of the American presidents to date, or c.s. Lewis, Tolkein etc etc etc. Intellectually weak? Mentally retarded? Dangerous?????
einstein was agnostic, not atheist. to be an atheist is to deny the possibility of a presence of a higher power, or an overseeing hand. einstein was in a sense uncertain, but never denied the possibility. furthermore he's obviously referring to christianity in that last quote.
Einstein was an atheist!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/ma..
If Einstein said it, it must be true.
OFN
'To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious.' In this sense I too am religious, with the reservation that 'cannot grasp' does not have to mean 'forever ungraspable.' But I prefer not to call myself religious because it is misleading. It is destructively misleading because, for the vast majority of people, 'religion' implies 'supernatural'. Carl Sagan put it well: '...if by "God" one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. this God is emotionally unsatisfying...it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.'
Albert Einstein
#4 Newton wasn't an atheist and him > Einstein
Blah that was alot of negatives, but you get the point.
and now your saying what you said in post #7? get your facts straight, he was an agnostic
In a 1950 letter to M. Berkowitz, Einstein stated that "My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.
guess not.
""My position concerning God is that of an agnostic." I guess thats pretty black and white there.
If a guy invents his own form of math just so he isn't held back, well that's just about as smart as you can get.
this is something everyone should read because you'll hear someone say "einstein failed math" and then you can pWn theM
http://www.time.com/time/2007/einstein/3.html
Religion imo is there so intelectually weak and mentally retarded thus dangerous folks would be scared shitless doing anything wrong. Nice tool for criminal reduction within one nation, but not so nice for international hate reduction.
i'm an atheist btw.