(March 13, 2018 at 11:06 am)Little Rik Wrote: Despite all the problems that he had with the church he continue to believe in God until his very end.  

Tends to happen when the church practically has you at gun point.  

Funny how they denounce him for 300 years, and then decide to suddenly 'accept him as one of their own' as soon as it's convenient.  

During Galileo's time it was dangerous to be considered an atheist.

"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. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."
Einstein, Letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind, January 3, 1954.

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."
Albert Einstein, responding to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein's question "Do you believe in God?"

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
Albert Einstein, letter to an atheist (1954), quoted in "Albert Einstein: The Human Side," edited by Helen Dukas & Banesh Hoffman.

"During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate influence, the phenomenal world."
Albert Einstein, quoted in "2000 Years of Disbelief," James Haught.

---

"I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science. My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance—but for us, not for God."

"Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a Supernatural Being."
Albert Einstein, 1936, responding to a child who wrote and asked if scientists pray

(March 13, 2018 at 10:21 am)Little Rik Wrote: https://www.famousscientists.org/25-famo...ed-in-god/


There is any need for any comment?
I don't think so guys.  

Oh, you're serious??

(March 13, 2018 at 10:21 am)Little Rik Wrote: https://www.famousscientists.org/25-famo...ed-in-god/


There is any need for any comment?
I don't think so guys.  

A scientist can be good at his job, by keeping it separate from his god delusion, yet still be ignorant by adherance to personal supernatural hoopla.

(March 12, 2018 at 10:52 pm)Joods Wrote: Amazingly not a single theist on our boards here has even kudosed the OP let alone commented in this thread.

I sense some jealousy issues arising.

Yes, but Isaac Newton was a theist. 🙍

(March 13, 2018 at 3:27 pm)Jehanne Wrote:

(March 12, 2018 at 10:52 pm)Joods Wrote: Amazingly not a single theist on our boards here has even kudosed the OP let alone commented in this thread.

I sense some jealousy issues arising.

Yes, but Isaac Newton was a theist. 🙍

Are you saying he didn't comment because he's dead?

(March 13, 2018 at 11:06 am)Little Rik Wrote:

(March 13, 2018 at 10:51 am)Grandizer Wrote: Einstein was a romantic pantheist (god to him was just a poetic word for the cosmos). He didn't believe in a literal god, not even a literal pantheist god.

To sense that behind everything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense...I am a devoutly religious man.” In response to a young girl who had asked him whether he believed in God, he wrote: “everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe—a Spirit vastly superior to that of man.” And during a talk at Union Theological Seminary on the relationship between religion and science, Einstein declared: “the situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

https://strangenotions.com/einstein-god/

Like I said, he was a romantic pantheist, not a literal one. This quote doesn't contradict what I'm saying. In fact, he clearly said elsewhere that he was not a pantheist (nor an atheist, for that matter). Literally speaking, he was an agnostic atheist, though he didn't like the word "atheist" itself.

(March 14, 2018 at 1:28 am)Grandizer Wrote:

(March 13, 2018 at 11:06 am)Little Rik Wrote: To sense that behind everything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense...I am a devoutly religious man.” In response to a young girl who had asked him whether he believed in God, he wrote: “everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe—a Spirit vastly superior to that of man.” And during a talk at Union Theological Seminary on the relationship between religion and science, Einstein declared: “the situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

https://strangenotions.com/einstein-god/

Like I said, he was a romantic pantheist, not a literal one. This quote doesn't contradict what I'm saying. In fact, he clearly said elsewhere that he was not a pantheist (nor an atheist, for that matter). Literally speaking, he was an agnostic atheist, though he didn't like the word "atheist" itself.

So you reckon that Albert didn't mean what he said?

You are funny Grand but to me your point is a bit cunning.  

(March 14, 2018 at 3:03 am)Little Rik Wrote:

(March 14, 2018 at 1:28 am)Grandizer Wrote: Like I said, he was a romantic pantheist, not a literal one. This quote doesn't contradict what I'm saying. In fact, he clearly said elsewhere that he was not a pantheist (nor an atheist, for that matter). Literally speaking, he was an agnostic atheist, though he didn't like the word "atheist" itself.

So you reckon that Albert didn't mean what he said?

You are funny Grand but to me your point is a bit cunning.  

So are you, Little Rik (no one is funnier than you, I'm sure), but have you not heard of poetry? Or should we take people for granted that they literally believe the sun rises in the east when they talk about the sun rising?

Observe these quotes from Einstein carefully:

"I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist."

"My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment."

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Einstei...st-Atheist

(March 14, 2018 at 1:28 am)Grandizer Wrote:

(March 13, 2018 at 11:06 am)Little Rik Wrote: To sense that behind everything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense...I am a devoutly religious man.” In response to a young girl who had asked him whether he believed in God, he wrote: “everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe—a Spirit vastly superior to that of man.” And during a talk at Union Theological Seminary on the relationship between religion and science, Einstein declared: “the situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

https://strangenotions.com/einstein-god/

Like I said, he was a romantic pantheist, not a literal one. This quote doesn't contradict what I'm saying. In fact, he clearly said elsewhere that he was not a pantheist (nor an atheist, for that matter). Literally speaking, he was an agnostic atheist, though he didn't like the word "atheist" itself.

In a letter, Einstein said,

Quote:"I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal god is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_..._and_deism