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Letter to God by Einstein on eBay auction for $3 million
by Jeff Schapiro October 4, 2012
Edited by Joseph Ernest
Newscast Media SAN JOSE—A letter written by famed physicist Albert Einstein, which contains in it his views on God and the Bible, is expected to fetch millions of dollars in an online auction later this month.
"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," the letter states, according to an English translation by Joan Stambaugh as found on the auctioneer's eBay page.
The original, handwritten letter is composed in German and is accompanied by the original envelope it was sent in. Einstein sent the letter, which is written on Princeton University letterhead, to Eric B. Gutkind on January 3, 1954 concerning Gutkind's book, Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt.
In the letter, Einstein not only explains his views of God and the Bible but also his views on the spiritual position of the Jewish people.
"For
me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of
the most childish superstitions," Einstein wrote. "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."
According to the website for Guinness World Records, the world record for the highest price paid for a single signed letter was set in 2009 when a letter written by George Washington to his nephew in 1787 was purchased for $3.2 million. The starting price on the Einstein letter is $3 million.
The price seems justified because Einstein lived in a time when people still wrote handwritten letters. Today with touch-screen technology and voice recognition software like Dragon Naturally Speaking, one does not even need to learn how to write in order to send a message, making handwriting a more and more obsolete means of communication. Add Comments>>
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