Albert Einstein explained what religion means with respect to the nature of god’s existence in a letter to Martha Munk, a religious instructor, in 1950. When Martha Munk questioned Albert Einstein about the idea that “a modern scientist can reconcile the idea that the world was created by God, a higher power, with his scientific knowledge,” Einstein said that he didn’t think it was possible. The Brooklyn, New York, letter has now been listed for sale with US signature dealer The Raab Collection. The starting bid is $125,000.
Einstein had been a citizen of the US for ten years when he penned this letter
The letter, which was written by Einstein, who is recognized as the founder of modern physics, was purchased from Munk’s heirs and will be auctioned. In an answer to Munk’s question, Einstein said:
“As long as the stories in the Bible had been taken literally, it was obvious what kind of faith was expected from the readers.”
Einstein added that upon a different interpretation of the Bible, it remains unclear if God can be thought of as a person analogous to humans.
“In that case, it is difficult to assess what remains of the faith in its original sense. I think, however, that the person who is more or less trained in scientific thinking is alien to the religious creation of the cosmos because he applies the standard of causal conditionality to everything.”
Einstein had been a citizen of the US for ten years when he penned this letter. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the father of modern physics left Germany. The scientist first resided in Belgium, followed by a six-week stay in Britain, before relocating to the United States. With his discovery that energy and mass are just two distinct manifestations of the same thing, Einstein came up with the simple formula E=mc2. He later experienced “the greatest satisfaction of my life” when the theory of general relativity demonstrated that energy and mass can bend space and time.
