Quote from pattersb:
My apologies if I went off the handle. I've been trying to master that in these forumns.
Einstein has famously claimed to have "Read the mind of God...", "God does not roll dice". The description below certainly could be catagorized as a "religion". For anyone to even think, let alone suggest, that such beliefs be banned or stifled is an affront.
Perhaps, that is why I lose my minds in these forumns from time to time. And maybe, I'm correct to do so.
http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/reflections_volume_1/torrance.htm
Its kind of funny that theists have to dig up quotes from long dead people to make their case about god. Is that an admission that they really have no other evidence to point to?
The question remains. Even if Einstein had believed in god would he still believe with the benifit of modern science discoveries today. I think not.
We can all play the quote game:
At a prayer breakfast in 1929, Cardinal OConnell charged that behind Relativity stood the "ghastly apparition of Atheism." A Rabbi immediately sent a letter to Einstein asking him if he believed in God. Einstein replied that he believed in the God of Spinoza. His
definition of God was just another word for Nature and its laws. Einstein did not believe in a superintelligence, the existence of the Trinity, the miracles of Jesus, the immortality of the soul, astrology, or the existence of the supernatural.
Einstein quotes on religion:
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own--a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty."
I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic."
"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order and harmony of the universe which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem--the most important of all human problems."
"The main source of the present-day conflicts between the spheres of religion and science lies in the concept of a personal God."
I cannot accept any concept of a God based on the fear of death or blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a liar."
In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests."
The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events...He has no use for the religion of fear and equally little of social or moral religion."
I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."
Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seems to me to be empty and devoid of meaning."
Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."
A child in the sixth grade in a Sunday school in New York City, with the encouragement of her teacher, wrote to Einstein asking him whether scientists pray, and if so what they pray for. His reply:
"Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by the laws of nature...For this reason. a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a supernatural being."
Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much of the stories in the Bible could not be true."
What I see in nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism."
Science has therefore been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A mans ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
Einstein remained an unbeliever. After his death in 1955 he was cremated without a religious ceremony.