“No one even knew this letter existed till recently…” eric gazin, president of auction cause

if only i had three million to spare, this would be worth every penny just to point to each day when faced with those god-fearing, subtly-kind folks. the letter was written by albert einstein (who, if i may say, was to some extent intelligent and above average). the letter was written in german in 1954, decades before atheist scientist and author richard dawkins called god a “delusion”, and sent to jewish philosopher eric gutkind, one year before einstein died. the letter was in reaction to gutkind’s book, “choose life: the biblical call to revolt.” in the letter albert einstein wrote :

“the word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the bible a collection of honorable, but still 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 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.” –albert einstein

*the translation above is an abridgment of the letter from albert einstein to eric gutkind from princeton NJ in january 1954, translated from german by joan stambaugh.

now i personally tend to seek answers for myself, but if one day i was about to take the word of another mortal man, i think i’d trust albert einstein over any other preacher on earth. that said, happy readings on the godly tales, any edition that is, as they do make good bed time stories. bid or read more on the letter here. by dd