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@Einstein: he actually was agnostic in his latter years. He did go to several churches in his younger years, but never really professed Judaism nor Christianity, however, when he got older he believed in the existance of God, although it was not the God we christians believe in, he believed in Spinoza's sense of God. Here's a few quotes

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."


Another one of those quotes out of context actually...

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Einstein's "belief" in Spinoza's God is one of his most widely quoted statements. But quoted out of context, like so many of these statements, it is misleading at best. It all started when Boston's Cardinal O'Connel attacked Einstein and the General Theory of Relativity and warned the youth that the theory "cloaked the ghastly apparition of atheism" and "befogged speculation, producing universal doubt about God and His creation"(Clark, 1971, 413-414). Einstein had already experienced heavier duty attacks against his theory in the form of anti-Semitic mass meetings in Germany, and he initially ignored the Cardinal's attack. Shortly thereafter though, on April 24, 1929, Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of New York cabled Einstein to ask: "Do you believe in God?"(Sommerfeld, 1949, 103). Einstein's return message is the famous statement: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings"( 103). The Rabbi, who was intent on defending Einstein against the Cardinal, interpreted Einstein's statement in his own way when writing: "Spinoza, who is called the God-intoxicated man, and who saw God manifest in all nature, certainly could not be called an atheist. Furthermore, Einstein points to a unity. Einstein's theory if carried out to its logical conclusion would bring to mankind a scientific formula for monotheism. He does away with all thought of dualism or pluralism. There can be no room for any aspect of polytheism. This latter thought may have caused the Cardinal to speak out. Let us call a spade a spade"(Clark, 1971, 414). Both the Rabbi and the Cardinal would have done well to note Einstein's remark, of 1921, to Archbishop Davidson in a similar context about science: "It makes no difference. It is purely abstract science"(413).

The American physicist Steven Weinberg (1992), in critiquing Einstein's "Spinoza's God" statement, noted: "But what possible difference does it make to anyone if we use the word 'God' in place of 'order' or 'harmony,' except perhaps to avoid the accusation of having no God?" Weinberg certainly has a valid point, but we should also forgive Einstein for being a product of his times, for his poetic sense, and for his cosmic religious view regarding such things as the order and harmony of the universe.

But what, at bottom, was Einstein's belief? The long answer exists in Einstein's essays on religion and science as given in his Ideas and Opinions (1954), his Autobiographical Notes (1949), and other works. What about a short answer?

In the Summer of 1945, just before the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein wrote a short letter stating his position as an atheist (Figure 1). Ensign Guy H. Raner had written Einstein from mid-Pacific requesting a clarification on the beliefs of the world famous scientist (Figure 2). Four years later Raner again wrote Einstein for further clarification and asked "Some people might interpret (your letter) to mean that to a Jesuit priest, anyone not a Roman Catholic is an atheist, and that you are in fact an orthodox Jew, or a Deist, or something else. Did you mean to leave room for such an interpretation, or are you from the viewpoint of the dictionary an atheist; i.e., 'one who disbelieves in the existence of a God, or a Supreme Being'?" Einstein's response is shown in Figure 3.


http://www.skeptically.org/thinkersonreligion/id8.html

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/einsci.htm#ONE

Really, Einstein used the terms religion, God and so on rather different than most people do,

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That would make it false christianity. Christianity began from the disciples of Jesus, it moved on to the rest of the world from there, but if you take Christ out of Christianity, then there is no Christ-likeness, which is the definition of Christianity as I said before.


No, you believe in the what I would call North American definition... apparently taking Christ and the miracle story and creation out of the religion is no issue for people that do not interpret the bible literally as most of the Christians in Europe. Hence the big difference and hence why you think it's false Christianity. smile

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It is not only american Christians who believe this, it started with the roots of Christianity. Any other alternative is false and is actually a mockery of the word. smile As for the existance of Jesus, there are reports from roman officials that prove his existance, such as Pontious Pilate.


Read up on what Pontious Pilate actually wrote (or do a forum search as I've already explained the problems with Pontious Pilate somewhere), as it doesn't prove that the Jesus of the bible was a historical person at all. In fact, if Jesus really was as special as the bible says he was, then it's rather strange that there aren't far more references to him through time, especially earlier on.

Cheers


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