Re: The Principle of Least Action and God.

From: Bjoern Feuerbacher (feuerbac_at_thphys.uni-heidelberg.de)
Date: 08/20/04 

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 09:54:23 +0200

Mitchell wrote:
> Bjoern Feuerbacher <feuerbac@thphys.uni-heidelberg.de> wrote in message news:<cg24lj$6ke$2@news.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>...
>
>>Woodridge wrote:
>>
>>[snip]
>>
>>
>>>I report in the following some *explicit* words *written* by Einstein.
>>>The English title of the work is "How I see the world". I have an
>>>Italian version and I am going to translate from it, but I have no doubt
>>>that if you check the English version you’ll find the same concepts and
>>>contents if not the exact words (I apologise in advance for any error
>>>and imperfection in the translation).
>>>
>>>****
>>>
>>>... I cannot imagine a God rewarding and punishing the object of his
>>>creation, and moreover a God exerting his will in the same way as we do
>>>on ourselves...
>>>
>>>... the human spirit imagines gods more or less similar to us, from
>>>whose will and actions the events depend... I call this religion the
>>>religion of terror...
>>>
>>>...these religions have a common point: an anthropomorphic God: beyond
>>>this level there are only very noble men...
>>>
>>>...there is another level of the religious life... the cosmic
>>>religion... no anthropomorphic God idea corresponds to it... we can
>>>found men filled by this kind of religion... such as Democrito, S.
>>>Francesco d’Assisi, SPINOZA...
>>>
>>>...the existence of a superior mind which manifest itself in the natural
>>>world is FOR ME the idea of God; in the current language it can be
>>>called PANTHEISM (SPINOZA).
>>>
>>>****
>>>
>>>Of course, I extracted some sentences (in sequence), but I can assure
>>>you that reading the integral text gives the same feeling. In
>>>particular, a kind of negative judgement on the "traditional" ideas of
>>>God is very evident. You can trust me, but anyway you can easily check
>>>on the English version of the book.
>>>(Anyway, the last sentence does not leave any doubt about the Einstein's
>>>belief).
>>
>>[snip]
>>
>>Thanks for providing this!
>>
>>
>
> So he did think pantheism was close to what he believed.

Err, no. What he describes above *is* essentially pantheism. As he says
himself!!!

> But
> Einstein said that the longer he lived the stronger his belief in a
> creator was. From that pantheistic viewpoint he is his creation.
> I can go for that.

So, do you retract your earlier assertions?

Bye,
Bjoern