There are many times faitheads claim people like Einstein as being members of their fold. I am sure this is mainly due to ignorance. Here we have Einstein in his brilliance saying god is a product of human weakness.
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can change this for me. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong, and whose thinking I have a deep affinity for, have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also 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.
Random thoughts 
Even if Einstein were a theist, it doesn’t do anything for their main problem – a lack of evidence.
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Well put. Well put. Regardless of which authority figure believes, there is still the question of evidence
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A lazy person will read I do not believe in a personal god ignore the rest and start yapping about how he had faith.
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A perfect way to start a new week, my Nairobi brother. Einstein was on point as to the human need for immortality. Humanity is notorious for the need to perceive itself superior to all other species and therefore too important to merely die. Be safe, friend! :).
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And each group of believers see themselves as chosen by their deity!
Enjoy your week and hugs my friend
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Interesting a piece from Einstein that I have never read.
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I stumbled upon it today and thought it was worth sharing.
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You must one day read his letters to Freud. Fascinating
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Thank you for mentioning. I have downloaded that for Wednesday morning reading when I will be in some meeting 🙂
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The problem with quote mining, is that Einstein had a long and productive life and hence he would have had many thoughts which he expressed to others. Like any other person, he might have changed his mind from time to time. Even if we could prove that Einstein believed in god at one point in time, then it would still not matter much if he changed his believes afterwards. So the theist should be careful with calling Einstein as a witness for his beliefs.
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Indeed, quote mining charge would affect any side of a debate if we only cherry pick as we are wont to do. Caution is important.
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I’ve read numerous writings by Einstein on god and religion. He was, at most, an agnostic. He did not believe in a personal deity who followed his every move, wiped his metaphorical butt, and loved him like a second momma. He’s known to have said, of quantum physics and how it connects to the rules of the universe he discovered, that god doesn’t play dice with the universe. Meaning there are rules for everything that make sense, it’s just that we do not know them all-yet. Theists interpret that as his loving some god or other when, indeed, it was just him using a colloquialism many people use. I say “god damn” all the time, but I do not believe in a god to damn anyone with. I’ve also read and heard theists describe Hitler as an atheist. They claim this is what made him so evil. Nowhere can I find any evidence of Hitler being an devote atheist. Stalin, yes, but not Adolf. I’ve found ample evidence to quite the contrary on Adolf. People cherry pick to make reality as they want it to be in order to make it THEIR reality. Skeptics do it too. It is a trap and all must be wary of it. Einstein, though he made great bagels, was not a theist-at least not in the slightest way some theists claim he was.
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>>People cherry pick to make reality as they want it to be in order to make it THEIR reality.
Reminds me of some muslims claiming that Alexander the Great was a muslim avant-lettre.
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Haven’t heard that one, but I’m not surprised.
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But I hope you have heard from our resident Muslim that Socrates was a messenger of the one true god?
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Really. Didn’t know that. Amazing what these guys know, eh? You’re talking about the fella who argumentatively posts on John Zande’s and your blog I’m guessing, Parrifit or something he calls himself? Another angry fellow.
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Yes that fellow. He calls himself paarsurrey
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He and som should hook up, get married, and enjoy some wild animal gay sex with each other. Might calm the two of em down. They’re so angry, I’m surprised their heads haven’t exploded.
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They would make a good match.
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The few places I have seen him talk about his belief i a god, he makes the clarification either like in the quote by arch or other times he says he believes in the god of Spinoza.
I will read more of him.
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Yes. he said that several times throughout his life.
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A human sensibility/ or rather a ‘fallen angel-expelled from paradise and eternal life’ syndrome does seem to be a common theme in so many cultures’ myths and cosmologies. As with your previous post, Noel, the question remains – why do so many human beings have this impression of ‘immortality lost’, or of ‘immortality to be gained’ and of a god person being responsible for both states. We most of us understand this concept, even if we don’t remotely believe it. Who put this idea into our heads or does it come ready made with the human organism, and has it been ‘writ larger’ over time – so that what started out as some sort of survival response became inflated into a longing for the whole heavenly host to gather us in for ever and ever. Can’t imagine anything worse personally. All that overbearing odor of sanctity. I’d rather be compost. At least lovely things would grow out of me.
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Well said.
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Thank you.
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Tish, this is so well put and I wish I had an answer to the question.
However, it has been suggested that god was an answer to ignorance. Man was ignorant of causes and names phantoms to be responsible. It has also been suggested that god could have grown from family or individual totems, from a village tyrant, among others. I don’t know really but I would like to have a word with the men who modeled god in their images and why women were not consulted.
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Ah-hah! Now you’ve put your finger on it. Once of course, perhaps back in the Paleolithic, god was the mother – Earth Mother – the source of creativity and endless regeneration. She appears in the very earliest versions of the Greek Demeter and Persephone tale. Such a positive, life and death accepting belief if one is going to have a belief. But somehow we decided to kill the Earth Mother and make money and misery instead.
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You say this very well.
Ancient Greece and Rome, I think were very civilized societies, even their gods were not tyrants.
This capitalist, male god who is also a tyrant and bigot hasn’t served humanity well. It has behaved like a bad computer programme. It has answered no questions it was hoped it would answer and it name a lot of blood has been shed.
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‘a bad computer programme’ I like it. A corrupted file 🙂
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Yes. Corrupted file more like it. Reminds me once in a campus my computer was attacked by virus that corrupted all files and folders. More like god virus as Hitchens used to say, poisons everything.
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I like the Gnostic concept of “demiurge” in which the Abrahamic deity is a fallen, corrupted fragment of an ineffable “transcendent” godhood who in His childish spite creates a corrupted, imperfect physical universe to get back at his Mother. 🙂
But computer virus is cool, too!
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Thanks Brian! I like that too.
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“although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power.”
How prophetic of him, for how has Israel acted to those around her since gaining power?
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Very prophetic. But then this has been true for almost all cultures. Give the guy power and you are in dogs. Look at the case of the Americans, they left Britain complaining of the overbearing church among other things. They got the power and worked hard to fight all dissent.
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I suppose four hundreds years ago they would have burned him at the stake!
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That is very likely
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In several ways, Old Einie was full of paradox.
Good post.
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Aren’t we all, if you think about it.
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What if the existent of God and religion is a conspiracy?
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They are. They’re conspiring to turn all humans into winged snow people and have us fly them around the galaxy creating tax-free property for them to exploit forever. They are also conspiring to remove the genitals of every woman alive and keep them in an iron box. This way, they can utterly and completely dominate women’s sexuality in any way they deem fit. Didn’t you know all this? I thought it was pretty well generally known info. The NY Times covers it like, EVERY day, and The Chicago Tribune has a section on it daily as well.
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That would mean the brain behind it actually had a plan and an end in mind. We call it a big sham or fraud in hindsight
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Sounds like you’re one of the conspirators my friend.
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I don’t get any Sunday offerings. Someone must be taking my cut before it gets to me
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Hello Makagutu.
This is such an interesting post… I am now thinking that, according to your insights here, Nietzsche’s quote “God is dead” would imply the end of weakness and hence, human redemption…
Great spotlight here.
Best wishes, Aquileana 😀
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Hello Aquileana,
That is such an interesting interpretation.
Have a pleasant day
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