Internet on Einstein

[Scythe Death]

Every once in a while there's something about religious people that irks me to a great extent. Now let's take a look at this:

Einstein's Letter in AOL News

For some time now, there's been debate on whether Einstein believed in God or not. It's now settled, at least for me (I haven't been keeping track of these discussions) that he viewed organized faith as idiocy, but he was open to the belief that there may be a "spiritual force" working at background of the universe. This idea has been adopted by so many great thinkers throughout history and the present.

Knowing that Einstein rejected religion was something that contented me; I thought that people would perhaps be less stubborn and become more open minded regarding their beliefs by taking word from one of the most famous and highly regarded physicists. However, as it is common from internet comments, I was disappointed at the reaction of the readers of this article. People are actually eschewing Einstein and questioning his intelligence based on his rejection towards religion.

It is deplorable that people are eschewing Einstein for such arbitrary reasons. I say arbitrary because arbitrariness is the sole foundation of belief in people.

How can people say religion isn't for the weak minded when they just seem to prove the opposite? (I'm all for debating this.)

[Jebus]

How can people say religion isn't for the weak minded when they just seem to prove the opposite?

You know it was a catholic priest who first proposed the Big Bang theory. A monk also built the foundation for genetics. Stop generalizing and being a douche.

[Little_Miss_1565]

You know it was a catholic priest who first proposed the Big Bang theory. A monk also built the foundation for genetics. Stop generalizing and being a douche.

Jebus 1, inexplicable fear of the beliefs of others 0.

[Endymion]

a catholic priest who first proposed the Big Bang theory

he was a pretty good scientist in general, and also mathematician and early computer proponent.

various high level dudes in the roman catholic church have promoted both evolution and that there may be 'children of god' on other planets in the universe.

[Scythe Death]

You know it was a catholic priest who first proposed the Big Bang theory. A monk also built the foundation for genetics. Stop generalizing and being a douche.

I'm not saying that religious people are stupid, I mean that religion is for the weak minded in the way that it is an escapism for death among many things. Even if he was a Catholic Priest, the big bang theory basically goes the fundamentals of his religion.

There's been Priests that have written books as to why God doesn't exist.

[Mota Boy]

Believing that belief or non-belief in religion signifies any characteristic in people other than belief or non-belief in religion is silly.

To say that questioning the intelligence of Einstein regarding his stance on an "arbitrary" characteristic such as religiosity is silly, then turning around and calling everyone who believes in religion "weak-minded" is an example of cognitive dissonance. You take comfort that Einstein agrees with you and seek to defend him, but were Einstein to actually profess a belief in God, he'd just be "weak-minded" on the subject and thus his opinion would be irrelevant.

Personally, I see no direct connection between intelligence and religiosity. I do believe, however, that as education and cosmopolitanism increases, religiosity declines, as other ideas enter in, crowd out and out-compete religion in various spheres of knowledge.

The thing you've got to realize, however, is that the dividing line, if you so wish to demarcate one, isn't between believers and non-believers, but between those that understand that a degree of religiosity is just another aspect of a human being (which you seem to do when someone is an atheist) and those that feel it is a signifier of some inherent superiority or inferiority (which you seem to do when someone is religious).

[OffspringHead]

I'm not 100% sure about this but didn't Einstein say that the more and more he learned about science the more he believed it God? Or maybe that was a different scientist.

And wasn't he jewish? He escaped from Germany just before the Nazis came to his village or something.

[Spud]

From what I understand, Einstein was a Deist. He believed in God, but was a little more skeptical of the idea of Him being directly involved with the affair of the world.

he also once said "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind". Sure doesn't sound like the words of an atheist.

[Scythe Death]

Believing that belief or non-belief in religion signifies any characteristic in people other than belief or non-belief in religion is silly.

To say that questioning the intelligence of Einstein regarding his stance on an "arbitrary" characteristic such as religiosity is silly, then turning around and calling everyone who believes in religion "weak-minded" is an example of cognitive dissonance. You take comfort that Einstein agrees with you and seek to defend him, but were Einstein to actually profess a belief in God, he'd just be "weak-minded" on the subject and thus his opinion would be irrelevant.

Personally, I see no direct connection between intelligence and religiosity. I do believe, however, that as education and cosmopolitanism increases, religiosity declines, as other ideas enter in, crowd out and out-compete religion in various spheres of knowledge.

The thing you've got to realize, however, is that the dividing line, if you so wish to demarcate one, isn't between believers and non-believers, but between those that understand that a degree of religiosity is just another aspect of a human being (which you seem to do when someone is an atheist) and those that feel it is a signifier of some inherent superiority or inferiority (which you seem to do when someone is religious).

Saying that belief or non-belief signifying characteristics in people is silly is even more silly; it ignores the fact that it's a very important characteristic of the foundation of a person's way of thinking.

It's, unfortunately, not as simple as you wish it was since both grounds (theism and atheism) have an inherent difference in thought. It's not as black and white. It's certainly untrue to say that whether you believe or not doesn't make a difference; there's a whole complex of thought behind this.

In regards towards you personal beliefs, you act like if people were generic beings, basing their beliefs on knowledge only. A person may be of a great intellectual potential and of great knowledge, but "a weakness of mind" can only be attributed to a person as a psychological trait. Knowledge isn't as simply integrated into a persons thought as you make it seem, the way knowledge influences a person is up to the way this person takes it, since this person may as well just eschew the new ideas.

I would never think that Einstein's opinion on religion would be irrelevant just like that either. I've always taken theist arguments with an open mind, it's just that these have always failed to make a point.


I'm also willing to debate whether religion is actually detrimental to humanity.

[Little_Miss_1565]

I'm also willing to debate whether religion is actually detrimental to humanity.

But is anybody else?