[GJM] Fw: [globalnetnews-summary] Childish superstition: Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear

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Childish superstition: Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively 
clear
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion

Scientist's reply to sell for up to £8,000, and stoke debate over his 
beliefs

    * James Randerson, science correspondent
    * The Guardian,
    * Tuesday May 13 2008

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." So 
said Albert Einstein, and his famous aphorism has been the source of endless 
debate between believers and non-believers wanting to claim the greatest 
scientist of the 20th century as their own.

A little known letter written by him, however, may help to settle the 
argument - or at least provoke further controversy about his views.

Due to be auctioned this week in London after being in a private collection 
for more than 50 years, the document leaves no doubt that the theoretical 
physicist was no supporter of religious beliefs, which he regarded as 
"childish superstitions".

Einstein penned the letter on January 3 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind 
who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to 
Revolt. The letter went on public sale a year later and has remained in 
private hands ever since.

In the letter, he 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."

Einstein, who was Jewish and who declined an offer to be the state of 
Israel's second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God's 
favoured people.

"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most 
childish superstitions. And 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 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."

The letter will go on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair on Thursday and 
is expected to fetch up to £8,000. The handwritten piece, in German, is not 
listed in the source material of the most authoritative academic text on the 
subject, Max Jammer's book Einstein and Religion.

One of the country's leading experts on the scientist, John Brooke of Oxford 
University, admitted he had not heard of it.

Einstein is best known for his theories of relativity and for the famous 
E=mc2 equation that describes the equivalence of mass and energy, but his 
thoughts on religion have long attracted conjecture.

His parents were not religious but he attended a Catholic primary school and 
at the same time received private tuition in Judaism. This prompted what he 
later called, his "religious paradise of youth", during which he observed 
religious rules such as not eating pork. This did not last long though and 
by 12 he was questioning the truth of many biblical stories.

"The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled 
with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; 
it was a crushing impression," he later wrote.

In his later years he referred to a "cosmic religious feeling" that 
permeated and sustained his scientific work. In 1954, a year before his 
death, he spoke of wishing to "experience the universe as a single cosmic 
whole". He was also fond of using religious flourishes, in 1926 declaring 
that "He [God] does not throw dice" when referring to randomness thrown up 
by quantum theory.

His position on God has been widely misrepresented by people on both sides 
of the atheism/religion divide but he always resisted easy stereotyping on 
the subject.

"Like other great scientists he does not fit the boxes in which popular 
polemicists like to pigeonhole him," said Brooke. "It is clear for example 
that he had respect for the religious values enshrined within Judaic and 
Christian traditions ... but what he understood by religion was something 
far more subtle than what is usually meant by the word in popular 
discussion."

Despite his categorical rejection of conventional religion, Brooke said that 
Einstein became angry when his views were appropriated by evangelists for 
atheism. He was offended by their lack of humility and once wrote. "The 
eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility