The word god is product of human weakness 上帝是人類脆弱的產物

一九五四年 愛因斯坦 寫信回應一位哲學家時，提出 " 信仰上帝幼稚　猶太非選民 "。

愛因斯坦本身就是猶太人，他曾說他與猶太人關係密切，但也稱他們「對我而言，跟其他所有族裔相比，沒有什麼不同的特質」。愛因斯坦在信中說：「我認為，上帝這個字，不過就是一種措辭，是人類弱點的產物，聖經中充斥許多光榮但仍相當簡陋且非常幼稚的傳說。」

「衛報」引述這封信中的內容：「（我認為），不論詮釋的多精細，都無法改變這個狀況。」愛因斯坦一九五四年一月三日撰寫此信給哲學家古特金。

曾拒絕受邀出任以色列第二任總統的知名科學家愛因斯坦在信中，也駁斥了猶太人為上帝選民的想法。愛因斯坦說：「我認為猶太教就跟所有其他宗教一樣，是幼稚迷信的化身。」他說：「我樂於作為猶太人的一員，我與猶太人的心智也有著深切的親密關係，但是對我而言，猶太人跟其他所有人相比沒有什麼不同的特質。」他又說：「就我的經驗來看，因為缺乏權力，他們並未出現最嚴重的弊端，但他們並沒有比其他人好。此外，我也看不出他們身上的『精選』特質。」

過去愛因斯坦曾發表關於宗教的評論，例如他說「沒有宗教的科學是跛子，沒有科學的宗教是瞎子」，這些說法引發各界議論，主要是被拿來充當支持信仰的主張。但在這封信中，他的評論顯得相當明確，毫不拐彎抹角。



Translated Transcript 

Princeton, 3. 1. 1954

Dear Mr Gutkind,

Inspired by Brouwer’s repeated suggestion, I read a great deal in your book, and thank you very much for lending it to me ... With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common. Your personal ideal with its striving for freedom from ego-oriented desires, for making life beautiful and noble, with an emphasis on the purely human element ... unites us as having an “American Attitude.”

Still, without Brouwer’s suggestion I would never have gotten myself to engage intensively with your book because it is written in a language inaccessible to me. The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely 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 other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong ... have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything “chosen” about them.

In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision...

Now that I have quite openly stated our differences in intellectual convictions it is still clear to me that we are quite close to each other in essential things, i.e. in our evaluation of human behavior ... I think that we would understand each other quite well if we talked about concrete things.

With friendly thanks and best wishes,

Yours,

A. Einstein