Einstein: Atheist

Remember that Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney duet "The Girl is Mine"? Well, let's use that as a metaphor for the tug of war between religious believers and nonbelievers over Albert Einstein. Being widely regarded as the smartest man who ever lived (although, let's face it, he was no Einstein), Einstein would be a pretty good get for either side. And while the arguments for Einstein being a believer are pretty flimsy (he was, after all, the smartest man who ever lived), there is this pesky quote: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." I don't understand it myself, but I've only got a B.A. in English. Still, it's been pretty clear, despite the existence of entirely made up email chain letters about how Einstein was some kind of born-again Christian, that Einstein's belief in God extended only to some kind of cosmic, Deist metaphor for the order of the universe. In other words, the religious are Michael Jackson and the non-believers are Paul McCartney--one being infinitely more likely to claim the "girl" as his. But a newly discovered letter has clinched the win. Writing to philosopher Eric Gutkind in 1954, Einstein said, "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." Sorry, Michael. The girl is mine. More details here.