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Post by Cody™ on Jun 6, 2020 11:14:42 GMT
”In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views."
"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 languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements 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."
- Albert Einstein
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Post by FilmFlaneur on Jun 6, 2020 13:00:36 GMT
As we saw recently here in a discussion about what exactly it was Einstein believed it, he often used language sloppily and so his position can be unclear. What is certain is that he was not a theist, calling such ideas childish; then at least at one point, contrary to the above, he explicitly associated himself with the ideas of Spinoza, which are indeed pantheist. It might also be noted that Einstein's "I don't think" above can be read as just reflecting uncertainty about where he stands. I don't anywhere reading him asserting an explicit belief in the supernatural as such, as opposed to considering the mysterious structures of reality in what some might take as religious terms.
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Post by Cody™ on Jun 6, 2020 14:08:55 GMT
As we saw recently here in a discussion about what exactly it was Einstein believed it, he often used language sloppily and so his position can be unclear. What is certain is that he was not a theist, calling such ideas childish; then at least at one point, contrary to the above, he explicitly associated himself with the ideas of Spinoza, which are indeed pantheist. It might also be noted that Einstein's "I don't think" above can be read as just reflecting uncertainty about where he stands. I don't anywhere reading him asserting an explicit belief in the supernatural as such, as opposed to considering the mysterious structures of reality in what some might take as religious terms. He believed a supernatural God was the cause of creation. He was most likely a deist. |
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Post by lowtacks86 on Jun 6, 2020 14:29:30 GMT
Einstein called himself "agnostic" which is basically just an atheist that either doesn't know what atheist means or doesn't like that label because it's heavily associated with antitheism. Which seems to be the case for him: "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."
Even as an appeal to authority this is not a particuarly good one, Einstein was obviously very smart, but his field was physics, not philosophy and religion.
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Post by FilmFlaneur on Jun 6, 2020 14:43:49 GMT
As we saw recently here in a discussion about what exactly it was Einstein believed it, he often used language sloppily and so his position can be unclear. What is certain is that he was not a theist, calling such ideas childish; then at least at one point, contrary to the above, he explicitly associated himself with the ideas of Spinoza, which are indeed pantheist. It might also be noted that Einstein's "I don't think" above can be read as just reflecting uncertainty about where he stands. I don't anywhere reading him asserting an explicit belief in the supernatural as such, as opposed to considering the mysterious structures of reality in what some might take as religious terms. He believed a supernatural God was the cause of creation. He was most likely a deist. * Sigh* Einstein: "My views are near those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem—the most important of all human problems. ... Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect. Certain it is that a conviction, akin to religious feeling, of the rationality and intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a higher order. [...] This firm belief, a belief bound up with a deep feeling, in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God. In common parlance this may be described as "pantheistic" . And "“Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.” You have been shown this before. |
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Post by Cody™ on Jun 6, 2020 14:46:37 GMT
Einstein called himself "agnostic" which is basically just an atheist that either doesn't know what atheist means or doesn't like that label because it's heavily associated with antitheism. Which seems to be the case for him: "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." Even as an appeal to authority this is not a particuarly good one, Einstein was obviously very smart, but his field was physics, not philosophy and religion. The best evidence points to him being a deist. |
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Post by lowtacks86 on Jun 6, 2020 15:14:06 GMT
Einstein called himself "agnostic" which is basically just an atheist that either doesn't know what atheist means or doesn't like that label because it's heavily associated with antitheism. Which seems to be the case for him: "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." Even as an appeal to authority this is not a particuarly good one, Einstein was obviously very smart, but his field was physics, not philosophy and religion. The best evidence points to him being a deist. What constitutes as "best"? What best fits your narrative? Again I'm not sure why you're quoting Einstein to try and make some sort of point, philosophy wasn't his field. |
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