That being said...
I'm equally thrilled to have just found out that my own personal views on organized religion mirror those of Albert Einstein.
My early religious experience was similar to his. And, like Einstein, I began to question - at an early age - the biblical stories that I was being taught and which everyone around me seemed to swallow - hook, line and sinker - without question. At the time, I lived in 'The Bible Belt' and, on weekends, it was hard to find anything entertaining on TV amid all of the televangelists and 'healers' (who were passionate - and, to me, utterly ridiculous - about scamming the poor and gullible for money) and other from-the-pulpit church programs (Thank Gd for PBS!... Hee Hee.). I attended services at Jewish synagogues and Baptist churches. Even then, in my young mind, I couldn't understand why so many otherwise rational people believed these stories to be... well, 'the Gospel Truth', so to speak. Not only was the Bible full of contradictions... How could the same God that made the Commandment "Thou shalt not kill." be the same God that - at various times - told people to go into another land and kill every living thing there or the same God that killed countless numbers of people Himself all over the ancient world?
More recently, I've done a great deal of self-directed research into the development of conventional religions... and what I discovered only steeled my view of religion as irrational, uninformed and blind acceptance of what can only be described as - if you look from a neutral position deeper into its history - superstition.
I discovered that, during Christianity's early years, it was a very small group of powerful and educated white men who took it upon themselves to decide what and who's early accounts/stories would become part of the canon as well as what stories were considered 'heresy' and their authors/followers 'heretics'. The latter was to be sought out and destroyed and the proponents/followers of the heresies were to be killed.
Thankfully, more people are realizing that most of the traditions/holidays/stories that so many hold dear in conventional monotheistic, patriarchal religions have their origin in earlier and much older, pagan or pantheistic belief systems... This is because the early 'Convert or Die' Crew had figured out that it would be easier to indoctrinate conquered peoples into their New and Improved, Goddess-Free, Father-God Religion if it contained a numerous familiar aspects from their own, now-banned beliefs.
And, I'm not even going to go into conventional religion's history of utterly misogynistic views towards and treatment of women (perhaps it's fear/envy-based? I guess the early church fathers couldn't comprehend how it it could be that women alone, not men - had the God-like ability to bring Life into the World... and boy, were they mad about it.) or the centuries of Witch Burnings - whereby the church immediately confiscated all possessions of the as-good-as-condemned at the moment of accusation. There are modern-day examples of this misogyny... Although women won the right to vote last century and there's currently a viable female candidate for President of the U.S.... Women are still forbidden from attaining the position of Rabbi - in Judaism; of Priest - in Catholicism... and, in some interpretations of Islamic law, rather than insisting that men be respectful of women and to take responsiblity for their own behavior ... the women are ordered to cocoon themselves... I mean, my Gd!... in some communities... women and girls are routinely executed (given the misnomer 'honor-killing') for being raped!
Good People of Planet Earth... There is No God or Allah or All-Knowing/All-Powerful Creator in All That Is who would condone such cruel, vicious and abhorrent treatment of anyone, let alone innocent victims of violent crimes... But, ignorant, evil, little men who are afraid of losing their unjustified influence and control over women might tell themselves and each other that God/Allah/The Creator did.
I also agree with Einstein that no one group can seriously hold claim as 'The Chosen People'... at least not based solely upon their collective religious beliefs.
Honestly, if there are any "Chosen People", they are the people - both women and men - who consciously choose to do Good... Those who naturally and consistently do The Right Thing because it is The Right Thing To Do whenever the opportunity or need arises... and They do so with no thought about receiving any credit or reward... even if it necessitates them going a little out of their way or taking more time than they planned.
... But, I digress...
The existence of the letter was a surprise to most. It came from a private collection and is scheduled to be auctioned in London this week. Einstein had written the letter to the philosopher Eric Gutkind on January 3, 1954, after Gutkind had sent a copy of his book, Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt.
Albert Einstein, pictured in 1953. Photograph: Ruth Orkin/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Einstein is My Co-Pilot.
Peace.
L.
From: www.guardian.co.uk/.
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." So said Albert Einstein, and his famous aphorism has been the source of endless debate between believers and non-believers wanting to claim the greatest scientist of the 20th century as their own.
A little known letter written by him, however, may help to settle the argument - or at least provoke further controversy about his views.
Due to be auctioned this week in London after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, the document leaves no doubt that the theoretical physicist was no supporter of religious beliefs, which he regarded as "childish superstitions".
Einstein penned the letter on January 3 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. The letter went on public sale a year later and has remained in private hands ever since.
In the letter, he states: "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, who was Jewish and who declined an offer to be the state of Israel's second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God's favoured people.
"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
The letter will go on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair on Thursday and is expected to fetch up to £8,000. The handwritten piece, in German, is not listed in the source material of the most authoritative academic text on the subject, Max Jammer's book Einstein and Religion.
One of the country's leading experts on the scientist, John Brooke of Oxford University, admitted he had not heard of it.
Einstein is best known for his theories of relativity and for the famous E=mc2 equation that describes the equivalence of mass and energy, but his thoughts on religion have long attracted conjecture.
His parents were not religious but he attended a Catholic primary school and at the same time received private tuition in Judaism. This prompted what he later called, his "religious paradise of youth", during which he observed religious rules such as not eating pork. This did not last long though and by 12 he was questioning the truth of many biblical stories.
"The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression," he later wrote.
In his later years he referred to a "cosmic religious feeling" that permeated and sustained his scientific work. In 1954, a year before his death, he spoke of wishing to "experience the universe as a single cosmic whole". He was also fond of using religious flourishes, in 1926 declaring that "He [God] does not throw dice" when referring to randomness thrown up by quantum theory.
His position on God has been widely misrepresented by people on both sides of the atheism/religion divide but he always resisted easy stereotyping on the subject.
"Like other great scientists he does not fit the boxes in which popular polemicists like to pigeonhole him," said Brooke. "It is clear for example that he had respect for the religious values enshrined within Judaic and Christian traditions ... but what he understood by religion was something far more subtle than what is usually meant by the word in popular discussion."
Despite his categorical rejection of conventional religion, Brooke said that Einstein became angry when his views were appropriated by evangelists for atheism. He was offended by their lack of humility and once wrote. "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
