Posted on 10/07/2012 8:51:46 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
A handwritten letter by Albert Einstein goes on auction tomorrow on eBay. The online auction site has set the opening bid at a staggering $3 million. That’s more than seven times as much as the letter fetched just four years ago.
“This is the most historic and significant piece we have listed on eBay,” said Eric Gazin, president of Auction Cause, the Los Angles-based agency consigned to sell Einstein’s two-pager.
So what makes this particular letter by the 20th century’s most renowned physicist so much more valuable than any other missive he hand wrote? Did he scribble his famous formula E =mc2?
No, it’s because Einstein offered his thoughts on God and religion.
“The word God is for me,” wrote Einstein, in a 1954 letter to Jewish philosopher Eric Gutkind, “nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends.”
No doubt the atheist community will seize upon that declaration as prima facie evidence that Einstein was one of them. And that, like the eminent scientist, they are on the side of “reason” rather than “religion.”
But the Bible foresaw this age in which we live, when the godless among us would attribute their disbelief in God and His Word to science and reason:
“It is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”
Einstein was, indeed, as Gazin attested, “one of the most brilliant minds to ever live.” But he was not omniscient. He was not infallible.
Moreover, it is not the human mind – however brilliant – but the Spirit within us that informs that God is not merely an expression or product of our human weakness; that His Word is not merely a collection of primitive legends.
Notwithstanding some of thoughts Einstein’s expressed in his so-called “God Letter,” as the letter’s auctioneers have dubbed it, it appears the Holy Spirit had at least some influence on the genius who gave us the theory of relativity.
For the celebrated physicist did not deny the existence of God. He simply did not believe, he wrote, “in a personal God.” He shared the view of so-called Deists that God created the world before stepping aside and leaving humanity to its own devices.
Even more interesting, while Einstein’s “God Letter” does not mention Jesus, it is clear from previous public statements he made that he thought Christ no ordinary man.
In a 1929 interview with the old Saturday Evening Post, the physicist confided, “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”
Moreover, he said, “No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
Einstein’s words quite unintentionally proved the Scriptures prophetic: That “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
“poured gasoline on the culture wars between science and religion.”
Possibly in the editorial room of the New York Times or maybe a few salons of the New York City “beautiful people” but no where else.
Another example of the liberal world view ‘where-I-sit-and-the-people-I-know-are-the-entire-world’!
Why is there a war between science and religion? Because there is a contradiction between reason and faith. Contrary to what most people think they are opposites. The whole premise of the Bible is that faith is superior to reason. Ok so what is the problem? If religious people truly believe then what does it matter what anyone else thinks? Because of the contradiction. They want to have it both ways. They want to live by faith but don’t want to be called irrational. But if faith is superior to human reason why is that an insult? They should be able to go their own way in the sure and certain knowledge that they are right.
>No doubt the atheist community will seize upon that declaration as prima facie evidence that Einstein was one of them.<
.
So what does that prove?
Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot were also members of the atheist community.
There is no such thing as “atheist community”.
http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/einsteinonjesus.html
The following comes from "What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck,"The Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 26, 1929, p. 17. The questions are posed by Viereck; the reply to each is by Einstein. Since the interview was conducted in Berlin and both Viereck and Einstein had German as their mother tongue, the interview was likely conducted in German and then translated into English by Viereck.
Some portions of this interview might seem questionable, but this portion of the interview was explicitly confirmed by Einstein. When asked about a clipping from a magazine article (likely the Saturday Evening Post) reporting Einstein's comments on Christianity taken down by Viereck, Einstein carefully read the clipping and replied, "That is what I believe." See Brian pp. 277 - 278.
"To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?"
"As a child, I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene."
"Have you read Emil Ludwig's book on Jesus?
"Emil Ludwig's Jesus," replied Einstein, "is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot."
"You accept the historical existence of Jesus?"
"Unquestionably. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. How different, for instance, is the impression which we receive from an account of legendary heroes of antiquity like Theseus. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus."
"Ludwig Lewisohn, in one of his recent books, claims that many of the sayings of Jesus paraphrase the sayings of other prophets."
"No man," Einstein replied, "can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that his sayings are beautiful. Even if some them have been said before, no one has expressed them so divinely as he."
Our time is distinguishedby wonderful achievements in the fields of scientific understanding and the technical application of those insights. Who would not be cheered by this? But let us not forget that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.
What these blessed men have given us we must guard and try to keep alive with all our strength if humanity is not to lose its dignity, the security of its existence, and its joy in living.
— From Goldman, p. 88.
If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity.
It is the duty of every man of good will to strive steadfastly in his own little world to make this teaching of pure humanity a living force, so far as he can. If he makes an honest attempt in this direction without being crushed and trampled under foot by his contemporaries, he may consider himself and the community to which he belongs lucky.
— From Einstein's book The World as I See It (Philosophical Library, New York, 1949) pp. 111-112
It is quite possible that we can do greater things than Jesus, for what is written in the Bible about him is poetically embellished.
— From W. I. Hermanns "A Talk with Einstein," October 1943, Einstein Archive 55-285
One has a feeling that one has a kind of home in this timeless community of human beings that strive for truth. … I have always believed that Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God the small group scattered all through time of intellectually and ethically valuable people.
— From Goldman, p. 98.
A Catholic science student, concerned for Einstein's soul, once wrote to Einstein, begging him to pray to Christ, the Virgin Mary, and to see a Catholic priest immediately. What follows is part of Einstein's reply.
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
— From Goldman, p. 88.
Sure there is. There’s a large and aggressively proselytizing atheist community comprising the lion’s share of faculty on any university campus. If you cannot see this, maybe you’re so deep in the forest that you only see trees.
So you see Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman and Stalin sharing membership in this so-called “community”?
It is well to remember that God does not believe in atheist.
Figments of human imagination lack the capacity to believe.
Some are capable of good despite denying the source of it. Most aren’t, as recent history amply demonstrates.
You leave out Pol Pot and Chairman Mao in your roster of atheist luminaries. Do you have something against East Asian atheists?
I randomly chose three. Plus, your claim is unsubstantiated.
Your randomness is disturbingly lacking in diversity, seeing as how there are only a billion or so Chinese atheists. Are you some sort of Eurocentrist? I’m sure that goes over like a lead brick in the faculty lounge.
And, what “claim” would that be, that is unsubstantiated on my part?
LOL, I am not here to address your wavering distractions. Look back at the claims you’ve made in your prior posts to know your own words and what you have to support them. You shouldn’t need my help in that endeavour.
Bloviation is not a particularly effective form of communication, barring a captive audience. Has anyone ever attempted to inform you of this?
Apparently not.
Thanks for confirming the efficacy of my administrating your own medicine to you. Now that you are better off, ponder on why you chose to inject distractions into the discussion. I will respond to you when you are successful in doing this. If you don’t get one, safely assume that you need to ponder some more.
In developing the theory of
relativity, Einstein realized that the
equations led to the conclusion that the universe had a beginning. He didn’t like the
idea of a beginning, because he thought
one would have to conclude that the
universe was created by God. So, he
added a cosmological constant to the
equation to attempt to get rid of the beginning. He said this was one of the
worst mistakes of his life. Of course, the
results of Edwin Hubble confirmed that the
universe was expanding and had a
beginning at some point in the past. So,
Einstein became a deist - a believer in an impersonal creator God: “I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals
himself in the orderly harmony of what
exists, not in a God who concerns himself
with fates and actions of human beings.” However, it would also seem that Einstein
was not an atheist, since he also
complained about being put into that camp: “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’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can
call myself a pantheist. We are in the
position of a little child entering a huge
library filled with books in many languages.
The child knows someone must have
written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in
which they are written. The child dimly
suspects a mysterious order in the
arrangements of the books, but doesn’t
know what it is. That, it seems to me, is
the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.”
www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html
I think a short answer is that he was offended
To be called an atheist, he believed in a creator,
and did not believe in an afterlife.
It’s an ill wind that blows forth from your piehole. Clarify just which “claim” of mine it is that you feel to be unsubstantiated. Otherwise, please dispense with the ponderous, pompous, meandering slaughter of all those poor little syllables.
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