This Post Is About Einstein
Albert Einstein is alleged to have said the following about the church in Nazi Germany,
"Being a lover of freedom...I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom, but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."
I have seen this passed around many times on the internet, along with things discussing how not all scientists or geniuses are atheists or anti-clerical. Certainly it is true that not all geniuses are atheists, BUT consider the following passage from author Christopher Hitchens:
"[the quote] Originally printed in Time magazine (without any verifiable attribution), this supposed statement was once cited in a national broadcast by the famous American Catholic spokesman and cleric Fulton Sheen, and remains in circulation. As the analyst William Waterhouse has pointed out, it does not sound like Einstein at all. Its rhetoric is too florid, for one thing. It makes no mention of the persecution of the Jews. And it makes the cool and careful Einstein look silly, in that he claims to have once "despised" something in which he also "never had any special interest." There is another difficulty, in tat the statement never appears in any anthology of Einstein's written or spoken remarks. Eventually, Waterhouse was able to find an unpublished letter in the Einstein Archives in Jerusalem, in which the old man in 1947 complained of having once made a remark praising some German "churchmen" (not "churches") which had since been exaggerated beyond all recognition."
I did some research myself and found that Einstein ACTUALLY said the following:
"The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously." [Albert Einstein, letter to Hoffman and Dukas, 1946]
"I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it." [Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, and published by Princeton University Press.]
"I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one." [Albert Einstein to Guy H. Raner Jr., Sept. 28, 1949, from article by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1997]
So, in conclusion, stop posthumously forcing faith on this man, who was a genius and an agnostic (at least). If you really respect for him, stop passing on emails that spread lies about him. Perhaps you will consider how many others have had religion forced on them, particularly in the (dis?)information age where anyone will believe anything they hear in an email.
"Being a lover of freedom...I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom, but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."
I have seen this passed around many times on the internet, along with things discussing how not all scientists or geniuses are atheists or anti-clerical. Certainly it is true that not all geniuses are atheists, BUT consider the following passage from author Christopher Hitchens:
"[the quote] Originally printed in Time magazine (without any verifiable attribution), this supposed statement was once cited in a national broadcast by the famous American Catholic spokesman and cleric Fulton Sheen, and remains in circulation. As the analyst William Waterhouse has pointed out, it does not sound like Einstein at all. Its rhetoric is too florid, for one thing. It makes no mention of the persecution of the Jews. And it makes the cool and careful Einstein look silly, in that he claims to have once "despised" something in which he also "never had any special interest." There is another difficulty, in tat the statement never appears in any anthology of Einstein's written or spoken remarks. Eventually, Waterhouse was able to find an unpublished letter in the Einstein Archives in Jerusalem, in which the old man in 1947 complained of having once made a remark praising some German "churchmen" (not "churches") which had since been exaggerated beyond all recognition."
I did some research myself and found that Einstein ACTUALLY said the following:
"The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously." [Albert Einstein, letter to Hoffman and Dukas, 1946]
"I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it." [Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, and published by Princeton University Press.]
"I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one." [Albert Einstein to Guy H. Raner Jr., Sept. 28, 1949, from article by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1997]
So, in conclusion, stop posthumously forcing faith on this man, who was a genius and an agnostic (at least). If you really respect for him, stop passing on emails that spread lies about him. Perhaps you will consider how many others have had religion forced on them, particularly in the (dis?)information age where anyone will believe anything they hear in an email.