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Albert Einstein's 'God' letter goes on auction
Deutsche Welle ^ | Dec 4, 2018

Posted on 12/04/2018 1:51:13 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

A letter written in German by Albert Einstein in 1954 is going under the gavel on Tuesday. Experts at Christie's auction house in New York estimate the so-called "God letter" could sell for up to $1.5 million (€1.3 million).

"This remarkably candid, private letter was written a year before Einstein's death and remains the most fully articulated expression of his religious and philosophical views," said Christie's in a statement.

The missive is referred to as the "God letter" because it addresses how Einstein felt about the characterization of God and Judaism in a then-recently published book on the subject by Eric Gutkind. Gutkind, like Einstein, was a German-born Jew who had fled the Nazis to the United States.

"The Jewish people to whom I gladly belong, and in whose mentality I feel profoundly anchored, still for me does not have any different kind of dignity from all other peoples," writes Einstein.

"The word God is for me nothing but the expression of and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends,” Einstein tells Gutkind. "No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change anything about this."

Specifically, Einstein did not believe that if there was a God, he answered individual prayers and intervened directly in human affairs.

The "God letter" passed into the hands of Gutkind's heirs, who kept the letter until it was sold at auction in 2008 for $404,000.

Notes from Einstein routinely fetch high prices, the most expensive of which was a 1939 letter to then-US President Franklin Roosevelt. In that letter, Einstein described "the construction of extremely powerful bombs," thought to denote the beginning of the Manhattan Project. It sold in 2002 for $2.1 million.

(Excerpt) Read more at m.dw.com ...


TOPICS: Germany; Philosophy; US: New York
KEYWORDS: alberteinstein; auction; einstein; faith; religion; science
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1 posted on 12/04/2018 1:51:13 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

That’s too bad.


2 posted on 12/04/2018 1:53:51 PM PST by donna (When Melania smiles . . .)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Einstein was a strict determinist. He didn’t even believe that God had free will.


3 posted on 12/04/2018 1:54:15 PM PST by Moonman62 (Give a man a fish and he'll be a Democrat. Teach a man to fish and he'll be a responsible citizen.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I guess he knows now.


4 posted on 12/04/2018 1:57:27 PM PST by JZelle
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To: Moonman62

I enjoyed a scene in the Einstein series it had him meeting the King of Austria or Germany for an appointment at the university, the king asks him: are you afraid of God? Einstein said, I am terrified of him.


5 posted on 12/04/2018 2:01:16 PM PST by Jolla
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

It would take a mind far greater than Einstein’s to find an equation that describes God.


6 posted on 12/04/2018 2:01:35 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: JZelle

Yep, Einstein now knows that while light imaging in the visual world is relative, God’s truths are eternal.


7 posted on 12/04/2018 2:03:37 PM PST by Sontagged ("Let the dead bury their dead" - Jesus)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I hope he and Hawking are enjoying their retirement from fame and fortune.


8 posted on 12/04/2018 2:03:53 PM PST by Albion Wilde ("The word 'racist' is used to describe 'every Republican that's winning'" --Donald Trump)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

He was obviously educated beyond his ability to think................


9 posted on 12/04/2018 2:13:58 PM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Red Badger

And professing themselves as wise, they became as fools.


10 posted on 12/04/2018 2:19:43 PM PST by JudyinCanada
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

A copy of the Bible can be had for free, and adherence to it built the civilization in which Einstein prospered.


11 posted on 12/04/2018 2:51:58 PM PST by odawg
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Too bad. Other scientists have gotten criticized for saying the very existence of the Earth with oceans and land, animals and humans, the perfect distance of the sun and moon all point to intelligent creation.


12 posted on 12/04/2018 2:59:04 PM PST by Southern Magnolia
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Agree with ol’Einstein. Belief in a supernatural being is a sign of weakness and self delusion. But, if it keeps you from killing me and my family...believe on!


13 posted on 12/04/2018 3:08:47 PM PST by Republic_Venom (It's time for some Republic Venom!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The error of human hubris is not in the belief that we know such a great amount of knowledge, but the belief that all knowledge is within our reach, on our own, no matter how distant in time it may take us to acquire it.

It is the imperfect being, the human, with an eqo that thinks perfection is within its reach, and thus that eqo must deny a perfect being to whom all knowledge is already known and much may always be a mystery to the human. The arrogant ego can’t take feeling so small and insignificant.


14 posted on 12/04/2018 3:36:55 PM PST by Wuli
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Well, ‘ol Albert’s a little disappointing, isn’t he?

As someone has already pointed out, he knows better now.


15 posted on 12/04/2018 3:43:55 PM PST by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: Moonman62

Einstein was a strong socialist. Atheism comes with socialism.


16 posted on 12/04/2018 4:24:50 PM PST by aimhigh (1 John 3:23 "And THIS is His commandment . . . ")
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

and yet, one of Einstein’s most famous quotes is, “God does not play dice with the universe...”


17 posted on 12/04/2018 4:33:06 PM PST by Chode ( WeÂ’re America, Bitch!)
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To: Republic_Venom

Don’t take the Mark. And good luck at the White Throne of Judgement.


18 posted on 12/04/2018 4:51:49 PM PST by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Einstein was a brilliant physicist, a mediocre theologian.

I once had a university English professor who categorically forbade us on day one to write an essay touching on Christianity or Christ.

He later assigned not one but two essays by Ol’ Al on religion - including commentary on Christianity. I considered that egregious hypocrisy and fighting words.

I defiantly wrote a point-by-point rebuttal of Einstein’s sophistry without first seeking permission. I was prepared to flunk.

I got an A. The teacher was honest in his way, and acknowledged that my essay was brilliant, and that his assignment invited protest.

I was debating theologians at 16, and attending pastoral conferences at 19 (by special invitation).

Although I garnered multiple awards in the physical sciences, including physics, in my youth, I admit that Einstein was far my superior there.

On theology, I was far Einstein’s superior; he was just another overrated hack. (Take that as bragging as you like; I am through affecting false modesty after everything I have witnessed in secular society and the institutionalized church.)

I am so infernally sick and tired of seeing leftist icons heralded as experts on conservatism and Christianity.


19 posted on 12/04/2018 5:08:24 PM PST by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: Moonman62

Did Einstein think his brothers were forced to go into the business of selling coffee and bagels?


20 posted on 12/04/2018 5:38:05 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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