"New" (little-known) Einstein letter on religion

[mindstalk]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion

"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.

For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people."

Comments

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

That last line reminds me strongly of something that Hannah Arendt wrote in The Jewish Writings (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n09/butl02_.html), about knowing and caring for only people not abstract groups.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Now dropping the God/ No-God debate, we're moving into the spiritua but not-religious debate. Or at least so says NYTimes guy (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/opinion/13brooks.html?em&ex=1210824000&en=787e405a3a54e904&ei=5087%0A)

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Gaaah, David Brooks. Yeah, saw that last night, too.

"Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism." Buh?

"Researchers now spend a lot of time trying to understand universal moral intuitions." That is not inconsistent with hard-core materialism.

"Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment." The misunderstanding (of the "selfish gene" idea), it burns.

"The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real." That's not the conclusion the parietal lobe research leans toward.

"the faithful have been defending the existence of God. That was the easy debate" *cough cough cough*

But I agree with him on the significance of neuroscience, though disagree with his conclusions; childhood exposure to neuroscience -- specifically, the wide variety and sheer bizarreness of brain damage effects -- was a big bulwark of my "never mind God, there is no soul" beliefs.