As a atheist, how do you feel about the idea itself? Do people have to believe in god or can people just not believe in him?
Atheism
- Thread starter MisterBobbyPin
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I always felt like there is a solid chance that a god or higher power exists as there are still things that science can not explain in a manner that a higher power doesn't make more sense. However, I also believe that one day we will likely have a scientific reason for everything and the odds of an afterlife won't make much sense.
However, I do not believe any religion is right as I both disagree that mankind could properly understand a higher power's meaning of life and I also have doubts that humans are a "chosen" being that the religion should solely focus on.
However, I do not believe any religion is right as I both disagree that mankind could properly understand a higher power's meaning of life and I also have doubts that humans are a "chosen" being that the religion should solely focus on.
Read this article on Einstein's views on God:
www.magiscenter.com
Einstein’s view of God is a tangle, partly because his words are often taken out of the multiple contexts in which he spoke about it. His comments can appear quite contradictory on the surface:
“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.” -from the “God letter”
"[Quantum mechanics] says a lot, but does not really bring us closer to the secret of the 'Old One.' I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice." -Letter to Max Born, 1926
"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind." -Response to Rabbi Goldstein, 1929, as quoted in “Einstein: His Life and Universe.” (Also reported by The New York Times on Apr. 25, 1929 under the headline "Einstein believes in 'Spinoza's God'")
“Mere unbelief in a personal God is no philosophy at all.” -Letter to V.T. Aaltonen, May 7, 1952, in “The Quotable Einstein”
The numerous interpretations of the above quotes often attempt to cage Einstein in a Deist or Atheist box. But as we will see, his views are complex and appear to change depending on his interlocutors.
Did Einstein Believe in the God of the Bible?
The first quote above is from Einstein’s now famous “God letter” written in 1954 to Eric Gutkind (the author of a book that Einstein did not particularly like: “Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt”). The sentiment against a “primitive” or “naive” notion of God is consistently found in other remarks made throughout his life but is articulated clearly in his 1936 response to a letter from a young school girl. She asked, “Do scientists pray, and what do they pray for?”
His response contains the essential form of his belief in God. The answer he gives to her direct question is in the negative:
“Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.”
He has the humility, however, to admit that human understanding of these “forces” is limited and that widespread belief in an “ultimate spirit” persists in spite of scientific achievements.
Einstein concludes with this revealing caveat, that scientists are lead by science to a “religious feeling”:
“But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.”
It is interesting to note that Einstein does not deny the validity of this “religious feeling.” As mentioned previously, his view of science and a “purely rational conception of existence,” cannot explain why humans care for truth and knowledge or tell a person how to live. Religion is the source for such motivation.
Obviously Einstein’s attitude to this “God,” whose existence is encountered throughout the order found in the universe, is decidedly not that of Spinoza. The following explanation, written only a few years before Einstein died, captures the heart of his attitude:
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery—even if mixed with fear—that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence—as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
And saw this video:
Did Einstein Believe in God? Find Out from His Letters and Quotes
Did Einstein believe in God? His view of God is a tangle, partly because his words are often taken out of the multiple contexts in which he spoke about God.
www.magiscenter.com
Einstein’s view of God is a tangle, partly because his words are often taken out of the multiple contexts in which he spoke about it. His comments can appear quite contradictory on the surface:
“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.” -from the “God letter”
"[Quantum mechanics] says a lot, but does not really bring us closer to the secret of the 'Old One.' I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice." -Letter to Max Born, 1926
"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind." -Response to Rabbi Goldstein, 1929, as quoted in “Einstein: His Life and Universe.” (Also reported by The New York Times on Apr. 25, 1929 under the headline "Einstein believes in 'Spinoza's God'")
“Mere unbelief in a personal God is no philosophy at all.” -Letter to V.T. Aaltonen, May 7, 1952, in “The Quotable Einstein”
The numerous interpretations of the above quotes often attempt to cage Einstein in a Deist or Atheist box. But as we will see, his views are complex and appear to change depending on his interlocutors.
Did Einstein Believe in the God of the Bible?
The first quote above is from Einstein’s now famous “God letter” written in 1954 to Eric Gutkind (the author of a book that Einstein did not particularly like: “Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt”). The sentiment against a “primitive” or “naive” notion of God is consistently found in other remarks made throughout his life but is articulated clearly in his 1936 response to a letter from a young school girl. She asked, “Do scientists pray, and what do they pray for?”
His response contains the essential form of his belief in God. The answer he gives to her direct question is in the negative:
“Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.”
He has the humility, however, to admit that human understanding of these “forces” is limited and that widespread belief in an “ultimate spirit” persists in spite of scientific achievements.
Einstein concludes with this revealing caveat, that scientists are lead by science to a “religious feeling”:
“But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.”
It is interesting to note that Einstein does not deny the validity of this “religious feeling.” As mentioned previously, his view of science and a “purely rational conception of existence,” cannot explain why humans care for truth and knowledge or tell a person how to live. Religion is the source for such motivation.
Obviously Einstein’s attitude to this “God,” whose existence is encountered throughout the order found in the universe, is decidedly not that of Spinoza. The following explanation, written only a few years before Einstein died, captures the heart of his attitude:
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery—even if mixed with fear—that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence—as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
And saw this video:
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Belief in God is an axiom in proof theory. You can choose to believe it or not. All proofs under it are just considered arguments.
You can say because there is nothing contacting us when we wish there to be a God to respond then there isn't one.
Or the fact we are living in a complex world deciding our own fate to keep living for this long that something had to exist before us to put it in place.
But where we are going when we die and the fact we cannot prove anything happens after aside from freak anecdotes of people saying they've been somewhere else, or then wondering why we dream as we sleep and the things we can't explain from those happenings, just begs the question. Science can't explain everything and it will take forever to solve it with even computers having limits.
You can say because there is nothing contacting us when we wish there to be a God to respond then there isn't one.
Or the fact we are living in a complex world deciding our own fate to keep living for this long that something had to exist before us to put it in place.
But where we are going when we die and the fact we cannot prove anything happens after aside from freak anecdotes of people saying they've been somewhere else, or then wondering why we dream as we sleep and the things we can't explain from those happenings, just begs the question. Science can't explain everything and it will take forever to solve it with even computers having limits.
I fully believe in the god moment, when nothing became existence. Not sure if there are higher beings of greater power above us, we may never know and whatever who knows what happens upon death. A lot of mysteries in life but first I think we need to find the edge of the universe first.
This is true. With the promises made that the god will make all things better, you still see people suffer for no just cause.
There are so many questions I would like to ask God but it will sound like blasphemy.
No one can question God. He is omniscience.
If he is, then give him a computer because I still haven't heard him. I don't live on the corner of First and Amistad so my odds are even worse.
Nice song by the way. He wouldn't be done with me in mouths with my questions.
I was going to say, Jim Carrey did this in Bruce Almighty.
But to me, it just ends up absurdist.