Einstein described God as the 'product of human weakness'
Einstein letter sells for £170,000
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16 May 2008, Guy Dixon , V3
A letter written by Albert Einstein, in which the renowned physicist described religious beliefs as "childish superstitions", has been sold at auction to a private collector for a record breaking £170,000.
Hopeful bidders packed the room at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair, which installed an additional 11 phone lines to cater for demand from international buyers.
Bids rapidly soared beyond the guide price of £6,000 to £8,000.
The letter was written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954 a year before Einstein's death. The Nobel physicist described God as the "product of human weakness" and the Bible as "childish".
"The word 'God' is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, [and] the Bible a collection of honourable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish," said Einstein in the letter.
Einstein also dismissed the notion that the Jews are God's chosen 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."
Bloomsbury Auctions spokesman Richard Caton said that the auction house was "100 per cent certain" of the letter's authenticity.
Einstein was born into a Jewish family in Germany in 1879 and started questioning conventional religion at the age of 12 after going through a devout phase in his early years.
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Do you agree?
Don't believe in Religion and the bible as the word of God !.
While I still believe their is a power greater than myself I agree with Einstein that the bible is not the word of god as it has been taken by believers of religions.
Religion to me is nothing more than a political ploy to keep the masses in line.
The story of Jesus happens to be taken from several different mythical legends almost word for word and has more to do with astroglogy than it does anything else.Why people chose to keep on believing in the story of Jesus that has no proven historical records of his existence is beyond my comprehension .Maybe the fear of hell as taught to them in their religion has held them to this belief but its kind of sad that they refuse to do a little research and use their own minds and figure out this was a mere legend past down over the centuries .I think the mere fact that most religions teach their followers not to question god and to believe blindly in something that can not be proven should be a red flag to anyone .When someone tells you not to question something you can bet there is control involved in that reasoning.
Posted by Linda R, 20 May 2008