In January of 1954, Albert Einstein wrote the following letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind after reading his work, Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt, a book about religious and optimistic humanism based on Jewish Biblical teaching.
I find this letter to be a great insight into Einstein's philosophical understanding of religion, which is often misunderstood or misrepresented in theological conversations.
The letter was bought at auction in May 2008, for £170,000.
Translation From German:
Princeton, 3. 1. 1954Dear Mr Gutkind,Inspired by Brouwer’s repeated suggestion, I read a great deal in your book, and thank you very much for lending it to me ... With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common. Your personal ideal with its striving for freedom from ego-oriented desires, for making life beautiful and noble, with an emphasis on the purely human element ... unites us as having an “American Attitude.”
Still, without Brouwer’s suggestion I would never have gotten myself to engage intensively with your book because it is written in a language inaccessible to me. The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely 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 superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong ... 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 of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision...
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, i.e. in our evaluation of human behavior ... 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
In one word, yes.
This new Limited Deluxe Box Set of Rammstein's new album, Liebe Ist Für Alle Da, has to have the best value-added content than any other box set I've seen. Included are the album, a disc with extra tracks, a pair of handcuffs, a bottle of lube, and six dildos shaped like the band members’ members.
I do about one New York Times crossword puzzle per day, and judging by the number of times the word ogle appears in their puzzles (seems like about every third one), it makes me think:
It's time for another song from the vaults. This one was written and recorded a few years back around the time of my first niece's birth. The song reflects the occasion, it's very melodic and lullaby-like. As per usual, it was recorded in my bedroom and I played all the instruments (haphazardly...)
Translation From German:
Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye photographed by Suzie Horgan at a Georgetown Häagen-Dazs ice cream store.
The Benin Empire lasted from 1440 until 1897 in what would be modern-day Nigeria. Judging by their flag above, they did not fuck around, but at least they were very upfront about their intentions.
A farmer sprays milk on police forces during a protest against falling milk prices outside the European Headquarters on October 5, 2009 in Brussels.
Don't even act like I don't play guitar. I've got proof right here.
[Note the tiny people in red coats for size reference]
