http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/05/einstein_god_is_human_we=
akness.html
Einstein: =91god is human weakness=92 - May 14, 2008
Einstein=92s often-debated views on religion look to have been made
clearer by a do***ent up for auction tomorrow.
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/einstein%20letter%20full.jpg
=93The 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,=94 he writes
in the 1954 letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind.
Bloomsbury Auctions, which is selling the letter, expects it to go for
between =A36000 and =A38000 (press release). If you don=92t have that much
spare change, you can always read Einstein=92s 1940 Nature article
=91Science and Religion=92 (subscription required).
In that piece he notes:
During the youthful period of mankind=92s spiritual evolution, human
fantasy created gods in man=92s own image, who, by the operations of
their will, were supposed to determine, or at any rate to influence,
the phenomenal world. ... The idea of God in the religions taught at
present is a sublimation of that old conception of the gods.
The Guardian has more extracts of the letter than the press release,
and its coverage quotes John Brooke of Oxford University thus:
Like other great scientists he does not fit the boxes in which popular
polemicists like to pigeonhole him. 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.
Are we the only people who expect Richard Dawkins to bid?
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/einstein%20letter%20Bloomsbury%2=
0Auctions.jpg
More coverage
Einstein letter shows disdain for religion =96 Daily Telegraph
Einstein describes religion as 'childish' in letter now up for auction
=96 Canadian Press
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