[Liberator]

Ima bump this once or twice a week when I see something profound on this spiffy little program I have on my iGoogle.

First up:

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

[Flipside]

'Only two things are Infinite, the Universe and Human Stupidity, and I'm not sure about the Universe'.

[General Battuta]

To try to heal some of the recent religious debate, some bilateral quotes!

The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer.

I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.

[Herra Tohtori]

"About God, I cannot accept any concept based on the authority of the Church. As long as I can remember, I have resented mass indoctrination. I do not believe in the fear of life, in the fear of death, in blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar. I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."

[Liberator]

That Einstein was a wise wise man.

There are too few like him.

[General Battuta]

No potshots, please.

He's a Deist in the classical sense, it seems. Or just agnostic?

[blackhole]

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people adapt the world to themselves. Therefore, all progress depends on unreasonable people." - Unknown

[Herra Tohtori]

He was a deist, yes, and there's no basis to try to enforce either any particular religious standpoint or atheistic one with his quotes.

Einstein disliked his words being used that way.

EDIT: to add a quote to the message...

"I don't try to imagine a God; it suffices to stand in awe of the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it."


And while I personally don't see any reason to differentiate between divine and mundane (after all, everything that exists, just exists), so I don't use the same terminology as Einstein, but I tend to also think that universe is a magnificent, awesome place to be even without any sort of divinity in it. Or, if you want to see it that way, universe might be considered the highest possible divinity there can be. In other words, either everything is divine, or nothing is. But this thread is not of my views, but Einstein's.

[Liberator]

Umm, what does me saying he's wise have anything to do with religion, you can be wise and not know a thing about god.

[Flipside]

'Get off my lawn, or so help me, I'll kick your butt from here to Regensburg!'

From Einsteins' less well documented later years...

[Herra Tohtori]

Umm, what does me saying he's wise have anything to do with religion, you can be wise and not know a thing about god.

Nothing in particular.

Also, to elaborate the earlier answer to Battuta's question, Einstein was an agnostic deist - if you want to classify it at all.

"My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment."

"I am a deeply religious nonbeliever.... This is a somewhat new kind of religion."


Also, to prevent another verbal trench warfare thread...

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

 

"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

[Flipside]

Yup, Einstein said that, he was a very great man, though, oddly enough, he always considered what may possibly be his greatest theory as his greatest failure...

[karajorma]

Great man though he was, why the particular reverence for Einstein? I've never seen someone start a page of Newton quotes (And he discovered a lot more things in very different branches than Einstein did).

[Colonol Dekker]

 Einstein Quote of the Day

These are plans for a prism Tower. Your president. He has expressed great interest in his application.
[quote/]

[TrashMan]

Great man though he was, why the particular reverence for Einstein? I've never seen someone start a page of Newton quotes (And he discovered a lot more things in very different branches than Einstein did).

Just as Chuck Norris became an internet meme for ass-kicking and godly power, so is Einstein a internet meme for brain power.

Weather such a position is deserved or not - ti's too late for such debates to change anything. It just is.

[The E]

Einsteins' Brain is so powerful, it became an Internet meme even before the Internet existed!

[Mika]

These are also directly from Einstein:
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

Tells you something about school system and science in general...

Keynes said something like this:
"The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward."
I have sometimes seen the same quote attributed to Einstein. Or something similar.

Newton was a more difficult person and having lived so many hundred years ago, I don't find it surprising he is not mentioned that often. One of the most famous ones, the one where he stands on giant's shoulders, could also be disguised mocking of Hooke.

Mika

[The E]

These are also directly from Einstein:
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

Tells you something about school system and science in general...

No. It tells you something of Einstein's opinion about school, not schools in general. Important distinction, that.

[Mr. Vega]

If A equals success, then A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut!

[Nuclear1]

Einstein quote of the day:

You see, when Prism Tower X, it is placed close to Prism Tower Y, the energy produced by the central tower will be increased by a factor of X/Y * 2.  Beautiful, ja?