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A letter in which theoretical physicist Albert Einstein called God a “product of human weakness” and the Bible merely a collection of “primitive legends” is being auctioned off, and it’s expected to bring in between $1 million and $1.5 million.

The letter, which was written in 1955 (a year before Einstein’s death), is being sold by Christie’s in New York later this year. In it, the scientist who developed the theory of relativity demeans God and religion but stops short of calling himself an atheist.

    “The word God is for me nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends,” the letter reads. “No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change anything about this.”

    Einstein wrote the letter to Eric Gutkind in response to the philosopher’s book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. It is the believed to be the most revealing insight into Einstein’s religious beliefs. Einstein, whose theory of general relativity is still one of the pillars of modern physics, had a Jewish background. He did not believe in God but also did not describe himself as an atheist. He served on the advisory board of the First Humanist Society of New York.

In the famous letter, Einstein both rejected the veracity of the Jewish religion and embraced the Jewish culture.

    In Einstein’s letter to Gutkind, he tells the philosopher how alike they are in their thinking — especially in what he calls their “un-American attitude.”

    He talks of the Jewish religion being “like all other religions” in that it is “an incarnation of primitive superstition.” However, he goes on: “And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong, and in whose mentality I feel profoundly anchored, still for me do not have any different kind of dignity from all other peoples. As far as my experience goes, they are in fact no better than other human groups, even if they are protected from the worst excesses by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot perceive anything ‘chosen’ about them.”

This isn’t the only time Einstein has critiqued religion and referenced his own lack thereof. Despite his discussions about “God” in a mathematical, philosophical sense, he was often quite devout in disbelief (but not so much that he ever used the “atheist” label).

    In a different letter, written around a decade earlier, he wrote: “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. … I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.”

Einstein will perhaps forever be used by religious apologists who want to convince people it’s “smart” to believe in “God,” but the fact is he would reject the modern notion of the religious deity we see around the world today. This letter is yet another reminder of that.

with jews you lose

I don't want to derail this thread too much but it's clear that highly intelligent individuals know that socialism is a superior system to capitalism.  Capitalism takes the excess wealth that is created by workers and gives it to the owners who do nothing.  Capitalism is self destructive and we are already seeing the effects of it.

Saint Paul talked about this long ago, in 2 Timothy 4:3 where he wrote: "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."

I don't want to derail this thread too much

but it's clear that highly intelligent individuals know that socialism is a superior system to capitalism.  Capitalism takes the excess wealth that is created by workers and gives it to the owners who do nothing.  Capitalism is self destructive and we are already seeing the effects of it.

Name one socialist country that has prospered, or provided prosperity for their citizens.  Just one.

The problem, nearly a hundred years ago, was logistics of resource distribution. The average human didn't have instantaneous communication.

We had no way to monitor resources to get a real time accurate inventory for centralized pooling of resources to distribute.

Simply put; socialism back then would have slowed down progress in many areas.

Overall, Einstein was absolutely brilliant, and I agree with him that socialism is the best form of industry.

I don't want to derail this thread too much but it's clear that highly intelligent individuals know that socialism is a superior system to capitalism.  Capitalism takes the excess wealth that is created by workers and gives it to the owners who do nothing.  Capitalism is self destructive and we are already seeing the effects of it.

I don't want to derail this thread too much but it's clear that highly intelligent individuals know that socialism is a superior system to capitalism.  Capitalism takes the excess wealth that is created by workers and gives it to the owners who do nothing.  Capitalism is self destructive and we are already seeing the effects of it.

Name one socialist country that has prospered, or provided prosperity for their citizens.  Just one.

   China
    Denmark
    Finland
    Netherlands
    Canada
    Sweden
    Norway
    Ireland
    New Zealand
    Belgium

The top countries frequently have high values for all six of the key variables that contribute to overall well-being: income (GDP per capita), healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust (absence of corruption) and generosity.

Here are the top 10 happiest countries and how they measure on the Cantril ladder:

1. Finland: 7.632
2. Norway: 7.594
3. Denmark: 7.555
4. Iceland: 7.495
5. Switzerland: 7.487
6. Netherlands: 7.441
7. Canada: 7.328
8. New Zealand: 7.324
9. Sweden: 7.314
10. Australia: 7.272

Let me google that for you! (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=top+socialist+countries (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=top+socialist+countries))

First result is this:
Top 10 Most Socialist Countries in the World
http://blog.peerform.com/top-ten-most-socialist-countries-in-the-world/ (http://blog.peerform.com/top-ten-most-socialist-countries-in-the-world/)


I'm guessing you have heard of a few of these countries? (you only asked for 1 and I gave you 10... sorry, not sorry)

I hear all of them are doing quite well economically, and socially... for example, if you google "happiest countries in the world", you get a very similar list:


Kinda neat how 70% of them make it into both top-10 lists, eh?  (also note, USA did not make it into the top-10)

Kinda neat how 70% of them make it into both top-10 lists, eh?  (also note, USA did not make it into the top-10)

ROFLOL, Countries with high taxes and lots of social programs are not SOCIALIST.  You obviously don't know what socialism is.  Try again.  

Praytell, what is socialism then?  Don't say I'm wrong without providing "correct" information for me, that's just rude (not that I even made a claim about socialism, I simply googled it)

It's not even "my" list... do you need me to google this for you AGAIN?!?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=top+socialist+countries (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=top+socialist+countries)

Let me try.  Socialism is a social structure where the means of production and its distribution is controlled by all members of that structure.

A capitalist system with lots of social programs is not a socialist system.  In the countries on your list, people do not decide how the economic system is run.  Capitalists do that.  

Equality of outcomes for the 99% does not make the system a socialist system.  Capitalists still run and control such systems.

@af_newbie, Well put.  Thanks for responding for me.

@Moloch, here's a hint on how to make the determination:  If a country has one or more corporations based within it's boarders that is not under complete control of the government, it ain't socialist.

I really have no idea

nor do I care to be honest

Maybe you should have an idea, and a thought or two, before blindly following something you don't understand.



You'll make a perfect socialist.  Honesty is the bane of socialism, so of course you don't care to be honest.

A straw man is a common form of argument and is an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man."

The typical straw man argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition through the covert replacement of it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man") and the subsequent refutation of that false argument ("knock down a straw man") instead of the opponent's proposition.

This technique has been used throughout history in polemical debate, particularly in arguments about highly charged emotional issues where a fiery "battle" and the defeat of an "enemy" may be more valued than critical thinking or an understanding of both sides of the issue.

Fucking fantastic job of taking something out of context to build a straw-man that you can attack