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 hitch hiker
OU812
 
Registered: 05/08/08
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 Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God
#8401635 - 05/14/08 04:42 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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LONDON - Albert Einstein: arch rationalist or scientist with a spiritual core?
A letter being auctioned in London this week adds more fuel to the long-simmering debate about the Nobel Prize-winning physicist's religious views. In the note, written the year before his death, Einstein dismissed the idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as "pretty childish."
The letter, handwritten in German, is being sold by Bloomsbury Auctions on Thursday and is expected to fetch between $12,000 and $16,000.
Einstein, who helped unravel the mysteries of the universe with his theory of relativity, expressed complex and arguably contradictory views on faith, perceiving a universe suffused with spirituality while rejecting organized religion.
The letter up for sale, written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954, suggests his views on religion did not mellow with age.
In it, Einstein said that "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."
"For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions."
Addressing the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Einstein wrote that "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. As 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. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
Bloomsbury spokesman Richard Caton said the auction house was "100 percent certain" of the letter's authenticity. It is being offered at auction for the first time, by a private vendor.
Quirky beliefs
John Brooke, emeritus professor of science and religion at Oxford University, said the letter lends weight to the notion that "Einstein was not a conventional theist" — although he was not an atheist, either.
"Like many great scientists of the past, he is rather quirky about religion, and not always consistent from one period to another," Brooke said.
Born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1879, Einstein said he went through a devout phase as a child before beginning to question conventional religion at the age of 12.
In later life, he expressed a sense of wonder at the universe and its mysteries — what he called a "cosmic religious feeling" — and famously said: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
But he also said: "I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."
Brooke said Einstein believed that "there is some kind of intelligence working its way through nature. But it is certainly not a conventional Christian or Judaic religious view."
Einstein's most famous legacy is the special theory of relativity, which makes the point that a large amount of energy could be released from a tiny amount of matter, as expressed in the equation e=mc2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). The theory changed the face of physics, allowing scientists to make predictions about space and paving the way for nuclear power and the atomic bomb.
Einstein's musings on science, war, peace and God helped make him world famous, and his scientific legacy prompted Time magazine to name him its Person of the 20th Century.
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 Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
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Loc: underbelly
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401647 - 05/14/08 04:46 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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"the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses,
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
embrace death in all the ways it comes no matter how soft or hard. cruel ,tragic,weak,light, gentle, ect how ever. thats life
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 232
Last seen: 17 days, 20 hours
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: Icelander]
#8401650 - 05/14/08 04:47 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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You sir are a very smart man
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 23,382
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401661 - 05/14/08 04:48 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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are you flirting with me?
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
embrace death in all the ways it comes no matter how soft or hard. cruel ,tragic,weak,light, gentle, ect how ever. thats life
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backfromthedead
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401672 - 05/14/08 04:50 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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"there is some kind of intelligence working its way through nature."
When you discover this at the very core of your being... You know its you... Ahem, too.
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 232
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: Icelander]
#8401674 - 05/14/08 04:50 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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Mod Edit: Pics like these are inappropriate in this forum. Please don't do it again.
Edited by Diploid (05/14/08 05:18 PM)
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: backfromthedead]
#8401687 - 05/14/08 04:53 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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Quote:
backfromthedead said:
"there is some kind of intelligence working its way through nature."
When you discover this at the very core of your being... You know its you... Ahem, too.
This is exactly why science and religion will never get along.
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OrgoneConclusion
Oh, bee hive!
Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 7,945
Loc: In the woods
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401752 - 05/14/08 05:07 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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Careful Hitch, Ice munchies noobies and is gender blind. 
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Tim: Hey Aimee, did you hear the one about the two bears who went to The Vatican?
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Gomp
¡(Bound to·(o))be free!
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 Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401756 - 05/14/08 05:07 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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Einstein did not (only) believe in himself.. Einstein; knew himself!
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 232
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: Gomp]
#8401775 - 05/14/08 05:11 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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No insult to Ice at all just a little foul humor
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Veritas
Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 10,302
Loc: PNW
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401779 - 05/14/08 05:11 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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Try OTD. 
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No man is free who is not master of himself.
~Epictetus.
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backfromthedead
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401781 - 05/14/08 05:12 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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'This is exactly why science and religion will never get along.'
Well fuck.
Something's got to give.
As of now... Science can produce a 'mystical experience'...
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: backfromthedead]
#8401805 - 05/14/08 05:18 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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If we deem God creator then we speak of him/her
out of perfection.
If god were perfect we would not need Hell, we would
all be created perfect.
My dog was better than most people I know.
is he going to heaven?.....No
To consider ourselves the center of the universe
would be to not consider things at all.
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Diploid
Cuban
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 9,909
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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 Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401819 - 05/14/08 05:25 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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This is exactly why science and religion will never get along.
Science treats only with things that can be measured, observed, and tested. By definition, science has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to say about religion.
Example: religion used to say that the Earth is at the center of God's universe and the sun and stars revolve around us.
Science showed that the Earth revolves around the sun. It had nothing to say about religion, only about the sun and the Earth.
This idea that science and religion are incompatible is a myth invented by True Believers who don't like that science shines a light on the Truth while religious dogma makes up lies and calls them Truth.
What's incompatible is religion and Truth.
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Wanna hear something depressing? One out of three Shroomerites wants to lock me in a government cage for using a substance they don't like.
Hard to believe, right? Read it for yourself:
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/7874721#Post7874721
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backfromthedead
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401830 - 05/14/08 05:28 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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'To consider ourselves the center of the universe
would be to not consider things at all.'
Now what in the hell makes you think that realizing your own 'God hood' would give one the impression that they are the center of the universe??
The church had this trouble, no??
One might think that had they listened to the snake and specifically sought the fruit for the purpose of opening eyes they might have some insight into reality.
I know the 'Alchemists' did.
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 232
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: backfromthedead]
#8401852 - 05/14/08 05:34 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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The word God and the commandments and the stories in the
bible are a good way to keep order.
I would certainly agree with all this,but the problem
is that religion was also the root of most of the
wars previous during and after the reformation era
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 232
Last seen: 17 days, 20 hours
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401880 - 05/14/08 05:40 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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As for science being my god and dispelling
all beliefs of something I cannot put my hands on.
Well I would have to say science wins and I
guess I`m going to hell.
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backfromthedead
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8401896 - 05/14/08 05:45 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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'...are a good way to keep order.'
Bingo. If they could only manifest what people are really looking for. Shazam!! Fuckin abracadabra!! Poof bitch.
That'd be the DAY.
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hitch hiker
OU812
Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 232
Last seen: 17 days, 20 hours
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: backfromthedead]
#8401963 - 05/14/08 06:11 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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Darwin was hated by all religious figures for his theories
of evolution.
Philosophers and star gazers were called heretics
once their science did prove a correctness.
All the great minds in science for centuries were
killed off by the almighty church of God by scientific proof as to the sky or the earth.
Why would a God so great make his believers so poor
and hungry if they were doing his bidding?
And what of those who did not?
Then I suppose they were Kings of Satan and beat down
on the ol`mighty God`s people in the land that God created.
What lesson did these poor people deserve to learn?
I suppose all rich athletes and computer engineers
dont believe in God because if they did they would be broke right?
And how many chemical and botany engineers ,in a ratio
to poor people would you see in church?
I`m sorry I just dont believe in God science prohibit it and lets hope everyone doesn't adopt the same attitude because it will be Anarchy.
My apologies for my forum behavior I`m a fucking nut.
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Edited by hitch hiker (05/14/08 06:13 PM)
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backfromthedead
Activated
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Re: Einstein was smart enough to believe in himself not God [Re: hitch hiker]
#8402004 - 05/14/08 06:24 PM (6 months, 5 days ago) |
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One thing that the churchgoers have on ya though...
Is that probably none of them would put a gaping asshole in front of my face.
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