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faholo - the key in discussing the religious beliefs of Albert Einstein is
to not attempt to take anything he said publicly out of historical context.
Scientists in the early part of the 20th century did not work unimpeded. The religious organizations of the day challenged absolutely every scientific discovery. The significance of this is that if someone wanted to do scientific research without interference, they would have to play the religious political game. Say what people wanted to hear while never upsetting the religious belief apple cart. Where the same can be said about today's political environment pertaining to scientific research, this climate was magnified exponentially in Einstein's day.
posted by
gomedome
on November 4, 2006 at 11:20 AM
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Interesting perspecitve gomedome!
I never thought of Einstein as religious, just intelligent and gifted!
faholo
posted by
faholo
on November 4, 2006 at 10:15 AM
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arGee - there was really 2 different Albert Einsteins in the public version
and the private one.
Anyone using Einstein to back religious contention must ignore these realities. The man declared himself as an agnostic, an objective viewpoint might be able to refer to him as a pantheist at best but he clearly stated, countless times, that he did not believe in an omnipotent creator being that was involved in human outcomes. Conveniently swept under the rug are the numerous occassions that he was publicly attacked by religious organizations who were intent on making sure he did not refute what they held as truths with scientific fact. The man was constantly on the defensive and as was true of all scientists of his day, had to play the political appeasement game with the very powerful religious folks to continue his work unimpeded.
posted by
gomedome
on November 4, 2006 at 10:13 AM
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Another Einstein quote...
That often finds itself "supporting" religious points of view is his offhand written comment to (I believe it was) Schroedinger regarding Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle: "The Old One doesn't play with dice." [Der Alte würfelt nicht!] – meaning that God didn't set up the rules of the universe to run by chance; which, when taken within the total context of Einstein's writings, was not a statement about his belief in a god, but rather a statement about his belief in a Universe that is ultimately knowable to humans.
I recently wrote extensively on this subject in my article THE ABSOLUTE NATURE OF A RELATIVE UNIVERSE. You might want to review this article for its pertinence to the ongoing discussion.
posted by
arGee
on November 4, 2006 at 8:10 AM
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every exceptionally intelligent person I know
...is pretty much a social moron....some in nice ways, others in not so nice ways...they are however, all genius...
posted by
FranklyMydear1
on November 3, 2006 at 6:22 PM
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SuccessWarrior - exactly and that is a good point
The man proclaimed himself as a panthiest and quite often made a point of mentioning the wonderment of nature. It is also important to consider his era, much of what he said about the complexity of the universe etc. was to placate the powerful religious influences of his day.
posted by
gomedome
on November 3, 2006 at 5:18 PM
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ariel70 - that's bullshit but I say this in the kindest of ways.
We've all heard the stories of Albert Einstein being so stupid that he would get lost in his own neighbourhood and of how he only wore identical sets of clothes so that he would not waste an ounce of his mental energy deciding what to wear. The man was a .001 percentile, meaning that he was more intelligent than 99.99% of the human populace of all time. He had not become lost in his own neighbourhood because of any mental deficiency, it was because of an especially acute ability to concentrate and focus. He was able to spend extended periods of time in the "zone", that area where those of human intellect less than 2 percentile may never tread. That area of absolute and accomplished thought where the extremely complex is assembled and understood with a relative ease. A smuck? .....gimme a break.
posted by
gomedome
on November 3, 2006 at 5:14 PM
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TVBlogger - isn't that scary stuff
A deluded son of bitch, armed with every catch phrase and shoot from the hip rebuttal that the sum total of mankind's wishful thinking could possibly develop over nearly 2 millenium, has mastered the art of propagating mass hysteria in large audiences . . . but its the power of Jesus dontcha know?.... No actually it isn't. The name, the myth, the icon and the history could all be replaced in their entirety with the result remaining much the same. An enigmatic speaker of some ability will always be able to get large crowds to react in this manner. There are so many factors involved that the undiscerning mind will never comprehend this. Get 20,000 of these undiscerning types in an auditorium and you can witness Jesus firsthand. It's sad and pathetic but if any of us object to this deception....we work for Satan.
posted by
gomedome
on November 3, 2006 at 4:57 PM
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Not EXACTLY on topic
but it sort of is... I think you and Success would enjoy this clip of
Richard Dawkins vs. Ted Haggard.
posted by
TVBlogger
on November 3, 2006 at 3:19 PM
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Gomey
Einstein? Apart from being a whizz at that mad greasy physics stuff, Al was a total schmuk who couldn't find his way to the woodshed.
There's a wonderful family callled Stein,
there's Gert and there's Ep and there's Ein.
Gert's poetry's bunk,
Ep's sculpture is junk,
and nobody understands Ein!
posted by
ariel70
on November 3, 2006 at 1:09 PM
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I can't imagine anyone studying science
to that extent and still believe in man's religions.
posted by
SuccessWarrior
on November 3, 2006 at 11:51 AM
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