Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 28, 2024, 6:20 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
A few days left to check this film out...
#51
RE: A few days left to check this film out...
(December 18, 2008 at 9:33 am)CoxRox Wrote: I was chatting to my dad earlier and he said to ask you this? 'If only fools believe in 'God' why did Einstein believe in a 'God'?'
You can be an intelligent fool! Wink

I think of myself as reasonably intelligent but I can certainly do/think idiotic things sometimes!

It doesn't matter where you put a god, the problem is that there is still an unexplained supernatural entity. Trying to describe how everything works and ties together at a very basic/simple level with string theory is great, but if a theist turns round and says "God made the strings." just reintroduces a very non-simple layer again.
(December 18, 2008 at 10:04 am)CoxRox Wrote:
(December 18, 2008 at 9:43 am)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: Einstein was a pantheist. It was only a metaphor. He didn't seem to believe in the supernatural at all. According to Dawkins he wasn't even a deist as he's often thought. Dawkins has said that deism is watered down-theism. Patheism is sexed-up atheism.
When Einstein said "God does not roll dice" it was basically his response to quantum mechanics and why he thought it was wrong, and what he basically meant was: The universe is not governed by random chance.
He used God as a metaphor as Stephen Hawking does/did.
Or so I've heard.
Einstein described himself as: "A deeply religious nonbeliever" and he said it was a "somewhat new kind of religion".

I've just done a quick check and found this quote by Einstein:

"Do you believe in the God of Spinoza?" Einstein replied as follows:

I can't answer with a simple yes or no. I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza's pantheism, but admire even more his contributions to modern thought because he is the first philosopher to deal with the soul and the body as one, not two separate things.'' 26

http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/torrance.htm
So he is basically saying "I don't know.". A pretty good stance! Wink
Reply
#52
RE: A few days left to check this film out...
Yeah you can be an intelligent fool sure. Einstein was intelligent but he was not a "fool" about that.
He didn't believe in the supernatural. He used God as a metaphor. For the universe. Or like Darwinian said - nature.
And yes, the problem is the supernatural, unknowable skyhook that is supposed to be used to explain things. But creates a MUCH bigger problem than the one it is suppose to solve. Its a total skyhook.
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Cassini's Last Days Clueless Morgan 26 6859 September 14, 2017 at 9:06 pm
Last Post: vorlon13
  You know what's totally awesome? H-Bombs! (Operation IVY propaganda/info film) Alex K 6 860 March 8, 2017 at 9:30 pm
Last Post: brewer
  Tyson Picks Up Where Sagan Left Off Minimalist 3 1108 February 12, 2014 at 7:52 pm
Last Post: Minimalist
  Neil to Earth: Reality Check Creed of Heresy 4 2002 August 10, 2013 at 7:14 am
Last Post: Creed of Heresy
  Revealing the Universe - check this out. thesummerqueen 41 11126 September 28, 2012 at 1:39 pm
Last Post: Cyberman



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)