Albert Einstein, and particularly his famous quote that “God does not play dice with the universe,” has been cited many times as an example of a scientist who, on some level accepted the idea of a supernatural being.
Apparently, that wasn’t the case:
Albert Einstein described belief in God as “childish superstition” and said Jews were not the chosen people, in a letter to be sold in London this week, an auctioneer said Tuesday.
The father of relativity, whose previously known views on religion have been more ambivalent and fuelled much discussion, made the comments in response to a philosopher in 1954.
As a Jew himself, Einstein said he had a great affinity with Jewish people but said they “have no different quality for me than all other people”.
“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.
“No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this,” he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper.
(…)
Previously the great scientist’s comments on religion — such as “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” — have been the subject of much debate, used notably to back up arguments in favour of faith.
Powell said the letter being sold this week gave a clear reflection of Einstein’s real thoughts on the subject. “He’s fairly unequivocal as to what he’s saying. There’s no beating about the bush,” he told AFP.
Well, that should clear that up.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:35 am
His “dice” comment always struck me as a rather obvious metaphor. Perhaps now more people will accept it as such. Einstein dismissing the notion of a god? Is anyone shocked at this? Seems like a “dog bites man” story to me.