I do, but later. If super-clever Einstein didn't believe in God, what chance have I got?
The picture is just a clip and the letter is written in German, so it would be a bit tricky to try to read it. He does offer some opinions about God and the Bible in amongst a lot of other stuff. The owner want 3 million dollars for it.
A bit too dear for us, then. But not good news for believers is it?
This is the paragraph which is causing all the kerfuffle.
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text..
Let's think a bit more carefully. He is objecting to "The Word God", to the way in which people think of God or describe God. He calls the Bible stories "honourable" but "primitive" which is exactly what they are, compared with modern knowledge and understanding. They couldn't be anything else.
And his last bit is talking about the way people have interpreted the Bible; given it meanings that it never had.
Like saying God is a very old man in a white frock sitting on a cloud?
Well done, young lady; you are beginning to understand.
Do I get a sweetie?
I'll ignore that. If you read other stuff that the hairy man wrote, you get a very different picture.
To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man.
For Einstein the religion of the Bible is too simple, too small, too shallow, to contain the God whom Einstein revered. That God, the one he found in physics and mathematics and who inspired his science, deserves to be thought of as much bigger, infinitely big. Of course, in one sense Einstein was wrong.
For Einstein the religion of the Bible is too simple, too small, too shallow, to contain the God whom Einstein revered. That God, the one he found in physics and mathematics and who inspired his science, deserves to be thought of as much bigger, infinitely big. Of course, in one sense Einstein was wrong.
That's a bit arrogant?
The God of the Bible couldn't be any bigger; he is as big as scientific knowledge of the day would allow him to be. This is one of the passages where the Bible describes God. It's a pretty big idea, but probably not big enough for Einstein.
The God of the Bible couldn't be any bigger; he is as big as scientific knowledge of the day would allow him to be. This is one of the passages where the Bible describes God. It's a pretty big idea, but probably not big enough for Einstein.
Where could I go to escape from you?
Where could I get away from your presence?
If I went up to heaven, you would be there;
if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.
If I flew away beyond the east
or lived in the farthest place in the west,
you would be there to lead me,
you would be there to help me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
or the light around me to turn into night,
but even darkness is not dark for you,
and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
Where could I get away from your presence?
If I went up to heaven, you would be there;
if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.
If I flew away beyond the east
or lived in the farthest place in the west,
you would be there to lead me,
you would be there to help me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
or the light around me to turn into night,
but even darkness is not dark for you,
and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
Next Bible Blog : Thursday 11th October
No comments:
Post a Comment