Albert Einstein: Belief in God is Childish
The AFP reports that Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass–energy equivalence (E = mc2), has described in a letter that the belief in God is “childish.”
Bloomsbury Auctions is selling the letter.
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.
The man who to turned down an invitation to become Israel’s second president as noted that:
“For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.” He also added, “As far as my experience goes, they [Jews] are 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.”
Many of us understand that the belief in an all-powerful supernatural being is just looney, and religion is the cause of incalculable problems for humanity. It’s nice to know that someone who changed the way we understand the universe can also help others understand and soberly reflect upon what resides solely within ourselves: The notion of God, and the immature minds that seeks it.
Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Albert_Einstein_Head.jpg
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