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khpiryv
Lv 6
khpiryv asked in Society & CultureReligion & Spirituality · 9 years ago

Christians: What do you think about these statements about Albert Einstein?

To set the stage here, consider the following quote from Einstein: "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 change this." He was a pantheist and often said that he was religious in the sense of the awe he had for the universe, but found the idea of a personal God naive.

Now note what two Christians had to say to him about this.

A Roman Catholic lawyer told him: "In the past ten years nothing has been so calculated to make people think that Hitler had some reason to expel the Jews from Germany as your statement [criticizing the idea of a personal God]."

The founder of the Calvary Tabernacle Association in Oklahoma said: "Professor Einstein, I believe that every Christian in America will answer you, 'We will not give up our belief in our God and his son Jesus Christ but we invite you, if you do not believe in the God of the people of his nation, to go back where you came from.' [...] Professor Einstein, every Christian in America will immediately reply to you, 'Take your crazy, fallacious theory of evolution and go back to Germany where you came from, or stop trying to break down the faith of a people who gave you a welcome when you were forced to flee your native land.'"

Personally I was floored to hear this from two followers of the man who encouraged love and tolerance of all people. It seems to me that they are essentially saying "An ethnic Jew insulted my beliefs! I'll show him, I'll say the Holocaust was justified!" Even if they were in the right to condemn Einstein (which by the standards of Christ, they certainly were not), how can people like this sleep at night knowing they implicitly condone genocide as a lesser evil than blasphemy? How are people like this allowed to hold positions of respect in our society?

Update:

@adam: I didn't mean to imply they were. However, they weren't the first two people to ever say things along these lines and they won't be the last.

@Hope is certainty: I didn't fall to the floor; I was floored, as in, taken aback, baffled, etc. I do think my jaw literally dropped though.

@Random Man86: I can understand that, but I don't think the anti-Semitic comments were at all merited. The first one blatantly implies that a single person's actions can make it acceptable to expel their entire ethnic group from your country (should we ban Germans from entering America because of Hitler?). The second one tells him to go back to Germany, which effectively would have been a death sentence for him. Both carry the ultimate implication that Einstein's blasphemous statement merited the treatment that Hitler gave to Jews.

@imacatholic2: I don't mean to imply that these statements somehow condemn all Christians by association with these two. I have been on t

Update 2:

@imacatholic2: For some reason Y!A chopped off the end of my message to you. I was saying: "I don't mean to imply that these statements somehow condemn all Christians by association with these two. I have been on the receiving end of such sweeping generalizations too many times to make that error and I apologize if it came off like I was. I was just appalled to read this and wanted to see if R&S Christians would recognize it for as bad as it was or if they would try to defend it."

@ChildoftheKing: It's the principles behind what they said; the fact that they're dead now doesn't matter. And it's not as harmless as you make it out to be. As I said, both statements imply that Einstein deserved to be put through what Hitler did to the Jews because of his (relatively innocent) comments about God.

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  • Dogbreath
    Lv 7
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    There are as many different Christians as there are brands of razor blades. Unfortunately nobody holds the trademark on what passes for Christianity, and pious reasons for anti-Semitism and really horrible inhumanity of other sorts can be justified by any clown that wants to claim that he speaks in the name of the lord. Such people deserve the obscurity they often get.

  • ChildoftheKing
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    It seems to you they were saying that but in fact that is not what they said.

    They simply told him if he didn't like the Christianity of America, at that time,

    to go back where he came from. Einstein expressed his opinion and they

    expressed theirs, which all in this country were allowed to do. Just as you

    are allowed to twist this anyway you decide to.

    Since these things were said over 65yrs ago, and all involved are probably

    dead, what's it to you?

  • imacatholic2
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    I think you took a long time to find two of the most horrible things that people might have ever said to Professor Einstein and then failed to give us any source for the statements.

    I like what Einstein said about the Church:

    "Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly. "

    - Albert Einstein, Time Magazine, December 23, 1940 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,7...

    And this is good too:

    Science without religion is lame,

    religion without science is blind.

    With love in Christ.

  • Mr E
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    a perfect example contrasting intelligence (which he had), and wisdom (which he did not).

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  • mia delight
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    I don't know why I have just always liked Einstein, the man had so many very important things to say...yet he seemed to very unassuming and humble person.

  • Shinigami
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    I cannot explain why these two people reacted the way they did. I am not them.

    Jesus did encourage us to love our enemies, but He also said to hate our families.....Jesus was actually a strange man. Perhaps very misunderstood, considering the scanty information we have about Him.

  • E
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    Simple statement of Facts and Truth Einstien is dead, makes NO Difference what he said or thought or believed.

    All that matters now is he will stand before God whether he believed in Him or not....Einstien NOW KNOWS God exists !!

    Source(s): Simple Truth
  • ?
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    You pose your question as if Einstein and the two fellows are alive. They aren't. Those two aren't holding any position.

  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    A. Einstein is Right by default althought that is true If and only if the other person is not Niels Bohr

  • Esther
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    He said nothing new. These sorts of things have been said about God, and Jesus, and the bible, for a very long time.

    Personally anyone can say anything they choose, it won't change how I feel about the Lord, in the slightest.

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