Einstein Quote #3

This is a quote from Albert Einstein's book, "Ideas an Opinions." Most people don't think of Einstein as a philosopher, he was one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century. Here's the text of the entire quote: The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery even if mixed with fear that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity; in the sense and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.

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[MontajBlaze]

The interesting thing I've noticed over the years, is I've seen and heard "official" quotes saying Einstein said he believed in god, and never did otherwise, vice versa, that he never believed in god, and that he'd changed from one to the other at one point in his life. Different Museums up in DC each had a different answer, all saying it was true documented fact. We ourselves can't really every know what he truly said in a world where fact is "fact" only on how much a person believes that fact.

[AthosAmo]

If you make a graph the line of which represents the level of order of nature as a whole, you will get a line going down as it goes to the future until it remains at its lowest level in heat death. If you follow it going back in time, you will reach a limit, which is the maximum level of order that nature can have, related to the maximum amount of energy available for work. Before that limit, the second law did not apply.

[NarutoHatake177]

Why do you say that the second law of thermodynamics did not apply at one time?

[AthosAmo]

At one time, energy did not disperse to where there is less universally and without exception. In other words, the second law of thermodynamics did not always apply. That behaviour had to be intended, for accidents can never bring about such order, as our experience tells us. To say that the behaviour of energy (as described in the second law) was not at all intended, yet to consider this comment you're reading to be impossible to have been unintended at all, is inconsistent.

[PDelta41]

@AthosAmo Einstein was what is known as a pantheist. It is technically atheism, with a deep reverence for the universe or natural world. But if you're a 'moderate' Christian, you're part of a shrinking group, as secularists and fundamental Christians square off, a 'middle-of-the-road' stance is becoming less appealing. And if you insist on a literal interpretation of the bible, well, in that case you're just nuts.

[AthosAmo]

Believing in resurrected God in the flesh is believed by "feeble souls" in "fear" or "absurd egoism" to Einstein. I did not know he thought that. I don't believe because of fear alone, nor is pride a reason for my belief. I believe because of reason. Nature could not have lasted forever, for nature is "dying." Only the supernatural could ultimately account for the existence of nature. But who will take a nobody like me seriously? Especially when against him. "He's Einstein; he MUST be right."

[Mortello]

Nice!

[nezpercenathan]

Allan, Thanks for posting these, they are things to make one think. BTW- It is guys like you, Phil Leeds, Richard Libertini, Al Ruscio, Mickey Jones, William Hickey, and other talented supporting people who really make films/shows work, a fact often unrecognized by the viewing public. (I think I named a couple of guys who are dead, but you get the idea).