I came across an interesting little discussion of Einstein’s religious beliefs. It drew a lot of comments, mostly
heated, with one side holding him up as a standard of proof of God and the other as a standard of proof that God doesn’t exist. With my usual sideways approach to such discussions, it occurred to me that the real lesson from that discussion was not whether or not God exists but rather why it is that we need to turn to others whether they be physicists, priests or prophets, to tell us what to believe or to justify our beliefs. Why can we not decide such things for ourselves and why are we so determined to convince others of the correctness of our views and the fallacy of theirs?
Filed under: reflections | Tagged: belief, Einstein, God
