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Einstein: God belief is childish

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Einstein was an independent thinker and never did well in a structured environment. He was thrown out of 1 or 2 schools for blowing up their chemistry labs. I dont think he would have done well as the leader of any nation. That was not what he was about.
 
There's a related editorial in today's NYT.

In their arguments with Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the faithful have been defending the existence of God. That was the easy debate. The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits. It?s going to come from scientists whose beliefs overlap a bit with Buddhism.
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The editorial talks about the phases of scientists vs. religion struggles over the years. It would have been interesting to see Einstein's reaction to the neuroscience studies showing Bhuddist monks achieving completely new (to neuroscience) brain activity patterns, and the associated health benefits to such disciplined mindfulness practices.

I wouldn't be shocked to see more and more hard-core skeptics at a minimum making a place for non-religious meditation in their daily lives based off of the mounting scientific evidence supporting the practice. Maybe all those religious people and their "childish" practices were onto something after all.
 
Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644
http://www.breitbart.com/artic...3ds3b6j&show_article=1

New letter from him. This will be sure to stoke some debate, although I think fewer people really appreciate his genius today than say, 25 years ago.

Albert Einstein described belief in God as "childish superstition" and said Jews were not the chosen people, in a letter to be sold in London this week, an auctioneer said Tuesday.

The father of relativity, whose previously known views on religion have been more ambivalent and fuelled much discussion, made the comments in response to a philosopher in 1954.

As a Jew himself, Einstein said he had a great affinity with Jewish people but said they "have no different quality for me than all other people".

"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.

...
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Jesus agrees with him.

Matthew 18:3
3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven
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Originally posted by: Throckmorton
I wonder if there would be a debate like this if he had said that belief in Aphrodite is childish.
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That Einstein didn't believe in the specific Judeo-Christian God is not the debate here. Or maybe it is and that's the problem?

Anyway, the reason I stopped getting into religious-oriented discussions on AT is because I discovered a while back that 99.9% of the people out there don't understand them. You have one group that clings to their particular traditions and institutions, and another pitted against them who points out how silly they are (like you did here) or how contradictory to modern science they are, and yet neither side seems IMO capable of understanding that those traditions and institutions have jack to do with God. Neither the concept of nor the existence of. At all.
 
Originally posted by: AnitaPeterson
Originally posted by: blackangst1
Very many great people believe in God (Mother Theresa for one) and very many great people dont. We;ll find out wont we 😉
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Epic fail.
Mother Theresa may have died an atheist.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories...news/main3199062.shtml
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Jeez this is a Dave-ish post. Here let me help you with a quote from the article:

According to her letters, Mother Teresa died with her doubts.

EVERY believer of EVERY faith has doubts at one time or another, including many atheists. The word athiest doesnt appear anywhere in the article. If you were a little more intelligent about faith you would know there is nothing in common between doubts and atheism. Are you a teen?

Epic fail.
 
I've seen hell firsthand, it's on earth and it was in Bagram.

This ridiculous religious bullshit is just that, and the worst is Christianity.

And i am saying that seeing what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If there is a god, IF there is a god, he is one twisted sick motherfucker that i'd like to torture for years before allowing him to live and then start over.

IF there is a god, i despise his very essence with the might that only an SAS Captain can.
 
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
I've seen hell firsthand, it's on earth and it was in Bagram.

This ridiculous religious bullshit is just that, and the worst is Christianity.

And i am saying that seeing what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If there is a god, IF there is a god, he is one twisted sick motherfucker that i'd like to torture for years before allowing him to live and then start over.

IF there is a god, i despise his very essence with the might that only an SAS Captain can.
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You should hate mankind, not God.
 
Originally posted by: sandorski
He sounds more like an Agnostic than an Atheist.
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Einstein believes in a higher power that is not a omnipotent being, or a god, or a deity. He believed in the TOE, Theory of Everything. A formula that governs how the world works. He believed that at the Heart of everything was a formula that applied to everything.

 
Originally posted by: Vic
Originally posted by: Throckmorton
I wonder if there would be a debate like this if he had said that belief in Aphrodite is childish.
Click to expand...

That Einstein didn't believe in the specific Judeo-Christian God is not the debate here. Or maybe it is and that's the problem?

Anyway, the reason I stopped getting into religious-oriented discussions on AT is because I discovered a while back that 99.9% of the people out there don't understand them. You have one group that clings to their particular traditions and institutions, and another pitted against them who points out how silly they are (like you did here) or how contradictory to modern science they are, and yet neither side seems IMO capable of understanding that those traditions and institutions have jack to do with God. Neither the concept of nor the existence of. At all.
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I'm not sure what the point is of the thread is however if it is to point out that XYZ famous person didn't believe in God and isn't a kook... Well, there really isn't a big point doing it in this forum given our rather non-religious community.
 
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
He is entitled to his opinion just like everyone else. I don't know anyone who thinks Einstein was a great philosopher or theologian - he was a great scientist. Therefore, I don't give his opinion any more weight in this matter than any other scientist.
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No he wasn't however he was an extremely successful and very confident person. I'm sure he'd give a lot of us a run of our money when it comes to our beliefs about the world.
 
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
I've seen hell firsthand, it's on earth and it was in Bagram.

This ridiculous religious bullshit is just that, and the worst is Christianity.

And i am saying that seeing what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If there is a god, IF there is a god, he is one twisted sick motherfucker that i'd like to torture for years before allowing him to live and then start over.

IF there is a god, i despise his very essence with the might that only an SAS Captain can.
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Wait, how is Christianity the worst? All I ever see you post on here is how fucked up the fundamentalist Muslims are.
 
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
I've seen hell firsthand, it's on earth and it was in Bagram in my opinion.

This ridiculous religious bullshit is just that, and the worst is Christianity.

And i am saying that seeing what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If there is a god, IF there is a god, he is one twisted sick motherfucker that i'd like to torture for years before allowing him to live and then start over based on what MY opinion of a God should be.

IF there is a god, i despise his very essence with the might that only an SAS Captain can.
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Bolded added to fix for accuracy.
 
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
I've seen hell firsthand, it's on earth and it was in Bagram.

This ridiculous religious bullshit is just that, and the worst is Christianity.

And i am saying that seeing what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If there is a god, IF there is a god, he is one twisted sick motherfucker that i'd like to torture for years before allowing him to live and then start over.

IF there is a god, i despise his very essence with the might that only an SAS Captain can.
Click to expand...

That is how I feel. And I ask myself what I can do. Not one murdered innocent child can I bring back. With all my passion, with all mine pain, with all my prayers and longing, there's not one thing past I can change. There's nothing I see but endless misery and injustice. I looked for God everywhere but he does not exist, not as a power out there that can act. I want to kill every evil person in the world, tear them limb from limb, boil them in hell forever, but I can't, and if I could I would only add to the endless pain that already exists. The fact that life is totally a empty joke and endless pain killed me. I couldn't save my life. I saw that in this totally meaningless world where nothing matters at all, and in the blackest depths of despair, I realized that I still care. I love innocent children even if there's no meaning. God it seems had been hiding in me. God is not unless you love. Only in your own love does he come to be. His love, your love, what difference does it make?
 
Originally posted by: conehead433
I don't have a problem with people who don't believe in God, but then again, I'm not the one who is going to Hell.
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You might be alright...if you picked the right one from the God lottery.

There are only a few thousand or so. Your chances aren't too bad.

Of course, that assumes that God exists in the first place.
 
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
I've seen hell firsthand, it's on earth and it was in Bagram.

This ridiculous religious bullshit is just that, and the worst is Christianity.

And i am saying that seeing what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If there is a god, IF there is a god, he is one twisted sick motherfucker that i'd like to torture for years before allowing him to live and then start over.

IF there is a god, i despise his very essence with the might that only an SAS Captain can.
Click to expand...

I feel sorry for you, you must live a fucked-up life.

I would thank God for all the awesomeness that I have experienced.
 
I'm not sure what I believe about God..but I am pretty solid on this: I don't believe in a God that could be tortured by JohnOfSheffield.
 
Originally posted by: conehead433
I don't have a problem with people who don't believe in God, but then again, I'm not the one who is going to Hell.
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the only thing that separates us is that we disbelieve in one more god than you do. Have you ever thought about why you don't belief in Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Celtic or Norse mythology; actually gone in and looked at them to understand why they are wrong and you are right? Or do you just base your entire belief system blindly on what your parents taught you?
 
Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
I've seen hell firsthand, it's on earth and it was in Bagram.

This ridiculous religious bullshit is just that, and the worst is Christianity.

And i am saying that seeing what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If there is a god, IF there is a god, he is one twisted sick motherfucker that i'd like to torture for years before allowing him to live and then start over.

IF there is a god, i despise his very essence with the might that only an SAS Captain can.
Click to expand...

I feel sorry for you, you must live a fucked-up life.

I would thank God for all the awesomeness that I have experienced.
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Well isn't that nice for you. However, there are a lot of people on Earth. After you're done thanking God for being so generous, would you be inclined to ask why millions suffered famine, disease and war while you led a relatively blessed life?

Out of empathy for my fellow man, I too would be pretty annoyed at God.
 
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