[by Peter Winkler, Valley Village, California (Blogger)]
One of the argumentative ploys used by Dennis Prager in trying to trap atheists is to ask them if belief in God is stupid and therefore a sign of stupidity among believers. If Prager's respondent says "Yes," Prager then asks them if they think Einstein was stupid, because Einstein said, "God does not play dice with the universe." This is supposed to prove that highly intelligent people can also believe in God.Well, today we have a nice story that will deprive Prager of his Einstein proof.
"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," he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper."For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions," he said.Previously the great scientist's comments on religion -- such as "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind" -- have been the subject of much debate, used notably to back up arguments in favour of faith.
I'm sure most atheists are too intelligent to be caught out by such an obvious argument! Firstly Dennis Prager should clarify what he means by "God". Is he refering to the Judeo-Christian God the he apparently believes in or the God that Einstein refered to, which was no more than a personification of the physical and mathematical laws of the universe. Einstein did not believe in religion and it is dishonest of Prager to try to pretend that he did. Hopefully the above quote will help to clarify Einstein's real views and prevent apologists from trying similar silly arguments based on misrepresentation in the future.
One of the argumentative ploys used by Dennis Prager in trying to trap atheists is to ask them if belief in God is stupid and therefore a sign of stupidity among believers. If Prager's respondent says "Yes," Prager then asks them if they think Einstein was stupid, because Einstein said, "God does not play dice with the universe." This is supposed to prove that highly intelligent people can also believe in God.Well, today we have a nice story that will deprive Prager of his Einstein proof.
"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," he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper."For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions," he said.Previously the great scientist's comments on religion -- such as "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind" -- have been the subject of much debate, used notably to back up arguments in favour of faith.
I'm sure most atheists are too intelligent to be caught out by such an obvious argument! Firstly Dennis Prager should clarify what he means by "God". Is he refering to the Judeo-Christian God the he apparently believes in or the God that Einstein refered to, which was no more than a personification of the physical and mathematical laws of the universe. Einstein did not believe in religion and it is dishonest of Prager to try to pretend that he did. Hopefully the above quote will help to clarify Einstein's real views and prevent apologists from trying similar silly arguments based on misrepresentation in the future.
However Prager is correct that highly intelligent people can also believe in God and there are many such examples. Such people frequently come up with very deep philosophical and complex arguments to support their beliefs. If examined carefully under the layers of amiguity, sophistry and complicated word usage there always seems to be a flaw in such arguments. Einstein however was not one of these people.
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