The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #129172   Message #2900362
Posted By: Gervase
05-May-10 - 03:12 AM
Thread Name: BS: Religious beliefs - no standing in law
Subject: RE: BS: Religious beliefs - no standing in law
Ah, Einstein. That quote is often cherry-picked. The poor chap would be turning in his grave if he knew how often it was used to bolster a religious argument.

It was the same Einstein who wrote: "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

And the same Einstein who wrote: "During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate influence, the phenomenal world... The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of that old conception of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to the Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes... In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vase power in the hands of priests."
        
And the same Einstein who wrote: "Thus I came...to a deep religiosity, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached a conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true....Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience...an attitude which has never left me."

And even the same Einstein who wrote: "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; 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."

There is enough of his writing to know conclusively that he did not believe in a personal god, and would certainly not consider himself Jewish or Christian in anything but culture.