A new letter has surfaced from Einstein which would appear to once and for all clarify his views on theism. Writing to Eric Gutkind (Jan 3rd 1954), Einstein states:
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.
Later in the letter he describes religions as "an incarnation of the most childish superstitions." So once again, I think we can classify Einstein’s "God" as the God of Spinoza as opposed to the "childish" views of classical theism.
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A letter from Einstein to Eric Gutkind sent in 1954 is up for auction.
It is rather blunt.
From the Grauniad short news story on this:
"...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…
Hey, we've heard theists cite the authority of Einstein in service to their superstitions often enough: practically every colloquial mention of a god by Einstein seems to get reiterated to support a claim that he was a fellow believer. There's an obscure Einstein letter going up for auction that's…
LOL!
After all these years, we won Einstein:
"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…
A letter written by Albert Einstein to Jewish philosopher Eric Gutkind just sold at auction for $404,000. That's not the news, though. It's the contents of the letter that have surprised some, although it merely reveals what most of us already knew: he was an atheist. That's only pseudo-news, the…
There are two older letters from Einstein in which he makes almost exactly the same points.