Childish superstitions and atheists really pissed Einstein off
Or at least that’s the impression I get when reading parts of a letter he wrote in 1954 which just got auctioned off for $404,000 in London (that’s nearly 1000 euros in European money, I think). Or maybe it’s just the fact that the letter was written in German. German often sounds so really pissed off, doesn’t it? Well it sure can in Berlin.
Anyway, returning from the grave isn’t easy for anyone I’m sure, but to do so just to slam religion like that (Hello? The afterlife?), well that’s certainly a first. But he was Einstein after all and if anyone can pull this one off, I guess he can. Not having much to offer for the traditionally faithful, he found the Bible to be childish, the idea of Jews being a chosen people silly (although they were a bit “protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power” - this was in 1954 like I said) and that although religion provided believers with a certain protective self-deception perhaps, it did not necessarily improve their morality.
None of this seems all that E=mc² these days, does it? What I find more refreshing is his attack upon atheism. Describing himself as an agnostic, Einstein scoffed at atheists as being people who do the same intolerance religious fanatics do. “They are creatures who - in their grudge against the traditional ‘opium for the people’ - cannot bear the music of the spheres.”
Maybe that’s why evolutionary biologist and world-class atheist Richard Dawkins was among the bidders for the letter (he lost out, of course, atheists are real cheapskates you know). He probably wanted to have the thing destroyed.
Meine Ansichten sind zu gewaltig für unseren bzw. euren begrenzten Geist.
Anyway, returning from the grave isn’t easy for anyone I’m sure, but to do so just to slam religion like that (Hello? The afterlife?), well that’s certainly a first. But he was Einstein after all and if anyone can pull this one off, I guess he can. Not having much to offer for the traditionally faithful, he found the Bible to be childish, the idea of Jews being a chosen people silly (although they were a bit “protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power” - this was in 1954 like I said) and that although religion provided believers with a certain protective self-deception perhaps, it did not necessarily improve their morality.
None of this seems all that E=mc² these days, does it? What I find more refreshing is his attack upon atheism. Describing himself as an agnostic, Einstein scoffed at atheists as being people who do the same intolerance religious fanatics do. “They are creatures who - in their grudge against the traditional ‘opium for the people’ - cannot bear the music of the spheres.”
Maybe that’s why evolutionary biologist and world-class atheist Richard Dawkins was among the bidders for the letter (he lost out, of course, atheists are real cheapskates you know). He probably wanted to have the thing destroyed.
Meine Ansichten sind zu gewaltig für unseren bzw. euren begrenzten Geist.
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