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May 13, 2008
Einstein's 1954 Letter to Gutkind
There is kind of a cottage industry built around speculation on Albert Einstein's religious beliefs or lack of same. A new letter has surfaced that will no doubt fuel that industry. Writing in German to philosopher Eric Gutkind on January 3, 1954, Einstein said several abnormally interesting things about God, Biblical religion and his own Judaism.
Here is an example,
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 [APF].
Both the Guardian and the AFP report have a lot more along with some rather trite comments from a couple of Einstein scholars. AFP also has a picture of the reverse of the letter in Einstein's handwriting. Unfortunately, it is too small a picture to read.
PZ Myers, on whose blog, Pharyngula, I first heard of this letter, made the following observation:
Note, please, that Einstein's views are not a final authority here, and you're nuts if you decide you should be godless because Einstein was — this is simply more useful information to oppose arguments from authority.
PZ is correct. What Einstein or anyone else thought or thinks about religion or God is irrelevant to the facts of the matter. Those facts, whatever they may be, live or die on their own, independent of any authority no matter how well known or respected.
Another point raised by John Brooke of Oxford University: many people who have thought deeply about these issues, and I think Einstein is among them, have subtleties in their thought that do not easily conform to the desires of those who would try to use their words in furtherance of some special pleading, no matter what is being plead.
Posted by Duane Smith at May 13, 2008 7:14 PM | Read more on Religion |
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Comments
Thanks for a carefully written post. I've reead other things by Einstein to the same effect as the above, but I think Einstein elsewhere comes up with surrogates for the god he rejected.
One of them is the noosphere, a sort of tertium quid connnecting minds across space. He apparently believed in that. One can look at it in two ways. (1) Almost everyone has a couple of superstitions. Big deal. (2) He had to come up with something to reflect that part of reality that he experienced he knew nevertheless might always escape experimental detection.
Posted by: John Hobbins at May 14, 2008 12:29 PM
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