Thanks for responding.
There are at least two things that children possess that seems lost to most adults:
1) Innocence.
2) Open mindedness
If those attributes are positive then there's certainly nothing wrong with being "childlike."
Off to work ... more later.
And it allows them to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Charming and endearing, but unsustainable.
Do you think your understanding of "childlike" is what Einstein was trying to convey?
I am quite sure it's not.
Yes. Einstein was humble (as you alluded to in an earlier post). That's to say that he didn't pretend to know things that he didn't really know. I don't know that he ever spent much time attacking the religious beliefs of others. You, on the other hand, find yourself in the religious forums day after day after day after day in an attempt to prove that religion is wrong when you don't really know that it is. Like it or not, Christianity has a lot of power over you and your day to day thought process.
Yes, many children believe what adults tell them but the point is that they are teachable and unhindered by the steal walls built by many adults who reach hard and fast conclusions. like a vast majority of the world's fool brigade has done.
" At least Einstein didn't absolutely rule out God...."
I believe you are being far too moderate in your conclusion.
Einstein definitely believed, he was a believer....and he associated that belief with a particular religion.
Einstein never denied that he was a Jew, nor that he believed in God.
Further, based on the testimony of close friends, he reaffirmed, at least to some degree,
his particular faith...his 'Jewishness."
11. Philipp Frank, gifted physicist, and
life-long friend of Einstein's, comments in his book "Einstein: His Life and Times," that "The appointment as professor in Prague led Einstein to become
a member of the Jewish religious community." Full text of "Einstein His Life And Times"
a. " At this time in Prague there was already a Jewish group who wanted to develop an independent intellectual life among the Jews. ... This group was strongly influenced by the semi-mystical ideas of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. They were Zionists, but at that period they paid little attention to practical politics and concerned themselves mainly with art, literature, and philosophy. Einstein was introduced to this group, met Franz Kafka, and became particularly friendly with Hugo Bergmann and Max Brod.
... a youthful group in Prague that attempted to create a Jewish cultural life
not based
on orthodox Judaism..."
Ibid.
12. For a description of Einstein during that period, Albrecht Folsing's "Albert Einstein" is quoted as follows by Aczel:
"Further in his book, Folsing says that Einstein was making use of
his "re-assumed Jewish 'faith,'" and quotes Einstein saying "I discovered that I was a Jew...and Einstein for the first time, and very decisively
avowed his Jewishness."
Aczel, Op.Cit., p. 107.
Interesting, eh?
Folsing states that
Einstein embraced the Jewish religion.
I can hear the religion-haters grinding their teeth!
It is clear that Einstein did not believe in a personal God who intervenes in all of the aspects of each individual's life, but it is also clear that
Albert Einstein did believe in a superior power responsible for the laws of nature.
This cannot be the views of an atheist.
And Einstein was determined to have a conversation with that
superior power, in whom he believed, about those laws.
