The second half, which you didn't quote, is where my guessing came in.
(and also, to a point, the "dishonest and dangerous" thing)
Do atheists have a God complex?
- Thread starter S.A.M.
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The second half, which you didn't quote, is where my guessing came in.
(and also, to a point, the "dishonest and dangerous" thing)
"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. " - Albert Einstein.
And?
Those aren't the words of a theist, are they?
Nope.
Nor are they necessarily the words of an atheist.
They do not contradict anything I said.
Er, there is no wishy washy mid ground here. Einstein did not believe in God. He was an atheist.
If YOU say so.
Even though HE didn't.
You are playing semantic games here, nothing more. Taking the entire catalogue of quotes by Einstein on the subject, it was clear he didn't believe in God.
He doesn't need to have explicitly declared atheism to be an atheist, just as he didn't need to declare he was anti-Nazi!
Just because you and 786 are women doesn't mean every one here is. Grow up.
I obviously disagree.
Taking the entire catalogue of quotes from Einstein, it was clear TO ME that he believed in and revered something greater than himself, but he thought a "personal God" (anthropomorphic father in the sky who cares whether or not you jerk off) was a ridiculous notion so was unwilling to refer to it as "God" due to the preconcieved notions of people, such as yourself, of what "God" is.
Actually Einstein is self described as a pantheist.
More wishy washy semantics. Einstein was an atheist, period.
Whatever you say.
Facts don't matter and the sublety of meaning is lost on most fundamentalist apologists - so I'll stop wasting my time.
It's not lost on me but I'm not entirely sure that he wasn't an atheist. Can you post a link to some of his words ion the subject?
Who is in the minority? And whom would like to take control over whom?
Considering that I was brought up in a christian 'state', educated in a christian school....
Shouldn't I be a christian still?
Er, point of contention.
Doesn't an ardent and militant ANYTHING have a "god complex" and want control over other people (beliefs, lives, behaviours...), to some extent?
Isn't that sort of the definition of "ardent and militant"?
Ah.
No and no.
Probably less so than theists anyway (in my experience).
Discover magazine put out an entire issue on Einstein just recently. Does he make claim to the world that he was an atheist? Not in so many words, but there is plenty of indication he wasn't a theist.
Crux:
"The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another."
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