Childish superstition: Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear
Date: Thursday, May 15th, 2008 (CDT )
Topic: Science
 "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."
Copyright: The Guardian
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