◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys.dxiong.com)(xys.dropin.org)(xys-reader.org)◇◇ 爱因斯坦关于宗教信仰的信 作者:ContiConti   四川大地震了,希望灾难减少到最低程度,希望今后的灾害预防要加强,建 筑物的标准更高。无疑在自然界面前,人类还是相对渺小的,科学的发展其实还 是有很大程度和空间的。信仰宗教的人也许说,是上帝的惩罚,或者说这是上帝 给予人类反省的机会。要是人类只是祈祷,干脆就不抵抗算了,让地震来吧,可 是人类的确需要反抗和建设,靠的就是科学和理性,而不是宗教和虚无。   今天的英国Guardian登载了最近发现的爱因斯坦的一封信,阐述了他对宗教 的态度,澄清了历史上许多人对他的误解。他明确地说:“‘上帝’仅仅是人类 众多缺陷当中的一个产品”;基督教的圣经总的来说是“幼稚的”。他澄清说, 任何事情都无法改变自己的这个(科学的)立场。当然爱因斯坦在信中也表达了 他对人性的包容。   爱因斯坦的信: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/13/peopleinscience.religion ... I read a great deal in the last days of your book, and thank you very much for sending it to me. What especially struck me about it was this. With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common. ... 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. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity 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 the priviliege of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision, probably as the first one. And the animistic interpretations of the religions of nature are in principle not annulled by monopolisation. With such walls we can only attain a certain self-deception, but our moral efforts are not furthered by them. On the contrary. 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, ie in our evalutations of human behaviour. What separates us are only intellectual 'props' and 'rationalisation' in Freud's language. Therefore 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 (XYS20080513) ◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys.dxiong.com)(xys.dropin.org)(xys-reader.org)◇◇