{"id":8558,"date":"2012-10-09T19:55:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T00:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/?p=8558"},"modified":"2016-09-30T15:58:38","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:58:38","slug":"good-without-god-einsteins-god-letter-goes-on-the-auction-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/2012\/10\/good-without-god-einsteins-god-letter-goes-on-the-auction-block\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Without God: Einstein\u2019s \u201cGod Letter\u201d Goes on the Auction Block"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Albert Einstein didn\u2019t believe in God.<\/strong>\u00a0 At least, he didn\u2019t believe in the trinitarian God revealed in the Scriptures.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t regard the Jewish people as God\u2019s \u201cchosen people.\u201d<\/p>\n

On January 3, 1954, a year before his death, Einstein tried to explain his belief system in a letter<\/strong> to Jewish philosopher Eric B. Gutkind.\u00a0 Einstein was responding to Gutkind\u2019s book, Choose Life:\u00a0 The Biblical Call to Revolt<\/em>.\u00a0 Writing candidly about his denial of the Jews\u2019 chosen status, Einstein said:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most\u00a0childish superstitions<\/span>. \u00a0And 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. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0Otherwise I cannot see anything \u2018chosen\u2019 about them.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And speaking of God,<\/strong> Einstein wrote to Gutkind, God is:<\/p>\n

\u201cnothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On October 8, the famed letter handwritten by Albert Einstein went on the auction block\u2014and within ten minutes, an anonymous bidder had placed the first offer at the opening price of $3 million.<\/strong>\u00a0 Auction Cause, the agency which listed the letter on eBay, hailed the letter as \u201cthe nexus of science, theology, reason and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

But wait a minute!\u00a0 Einstein was NOT, as some have claimed, an atheist.<\/strong>\u00a0 Rather, he described himself as \u201cagnostic\u201d\u2014insisting that \u201can attitude of humility\u201d was preferable to positive atheism.\u00a0 Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson explained that the scientist spoke more harshly about disbelievers than about the faithful.\u00a0 He wrote in a letter:<\/p>\n

The fanatical atheists\u2026are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle.\u00a0 They are creatures who\u2014in their grudge against the traditional \u2018opium of the people\u2019\u2014cannot bear the music of the spheres.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a 1930 interview which was published in G. S. Viereck\u2019s book Glimpses of the Great<\/em>, Einstein acknowledged the limits of human understanding, and held out the possibility that he may not understand everything:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your question [about God] is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist. \u00a0I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. \u00a0The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. \u00a0May I not reply with a parable? \u00a0The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. \u00a0We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. \u00a0The child knows that someone must have written those books. \u00a0It does not know who or how. \u00a0It does not understand the languages in which they are written. \u00a0The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. \u00a0That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. \u00a0We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. \u00a0Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For more information on the Einstein letter,<\/strong> go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019d like your own copy of an original Einstein letter<\/strong> (not the \u201cGod letter\u201d) for only, say, $20,000\u2014check out the eBay page<\/a>!\u00a0 There are plenty of letters for sale.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albert Einstein didn\u2019t believe in God.\u00a0 At least, he didn\u2019t believe in the trinitarian God revealed in the Scriptures.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t regard the Jewish people as God\u2019s \u201cchosen people.\u201d On January 3, 1954, a year before his death, Einstein tried to explain his belief system in a letter to Jewish philosopher Eric B. Gutkind.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,224],"tags":[997],"class_list":["post-8558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-science","tag-einstein"],"yoast_head":"\nGood Without God: Einstein\u2019s \u201cGod Letter\u201d Goes on the Auction Block<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Albert Einstein didn\u2019t believe in God.\u00a0 At least, he didn\u2019t believe in the trinitarian God revealed in the Scriptures.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t regard the Jewish\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/2012\/10\/good-without-god-einsteins-god-letter-goes-on-the-auction-block\/\" \/>\n<meta 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