XPost: sci.physics, sci.math, alt.atheism   
   From: starmaker@ix.netcom.com   
      
   On Wed, 04 Feb 2026 12:47:31 -0800, The Starmaker   
    wrote:   
      
   >On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 23:38:55 -0800, The Starmaker   
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >>On Sat, 20 Dec 2025 23:25:14 -0800, The Starmaker   
   >> wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>On Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:44:12 -0800, The Starmaker   
   >>> wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>>Einstein's God (a cosmic religion) is called Spinoza's God , the God   
   >>>>Einstein believes in.   
   >>>>No Free Will   , human free will is an illusion; our choices are   
   >>>>determined by natural causes.   
   >>>>   
   >>>   
   >>>Here are some quotes by Albert Einstein  that appear to me was   
   >>>influenced by  Spinoza's God:   
   >>>   
   >>>If the moon, in the act of completing its eternal way around the   
   >>>earth, were gifted with self-consciousness, it would feel thoroughly   
   >>>convinced that it was traveling its way of its own accord on the   
   >>>strength of a resolution taken once and for all. So would a Being,   
   >>>endowed with higher insight and more perfect intelligence, watching   
   >>>man and his doings, smile about man's illusion that he was acting   
   >>>according to his own free will.   
   >>>Albert Einstein   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what   
   >>>he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all   
   >>>situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of   
   >>>others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the   
   >>>lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too   
   >>>seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my   
   >>>temper.   
   >>>Albert Einstein   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>Human beings, in their thinking, feeling and acting are not free   
   >>>agents but are as causally bound as the stars in their motion.   
   >>>Albert Einstein   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>So would a Being, endowed with higher insight and more perfect   
   >>>intelligence, watching man and his doings, smile about man's illusion   
   >>>that he was acting according to his own free will.   
   >>>Albert Einstein   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>I agree with your remark about loving your enemy as far as actions are   
   >>>concerned. But for me the cognitive basis is the trust in an   
   >>>unrestricted causality. 'I cannot hate him, because he must do what he   
   >>>does.' That means for me more Spinoza than the prophets.   
   >>>Albert Einstein   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free   
   >>>will...Practically, I am, nevertheless, compelled to act as if freedom   
   >>>of the will existed. If I wish to live in a civilized community, I   
   >>>must act as if man is a responsible being.   
   >>>Albert Einstein   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will. The Jews   
   >>>believe in free will. They believe that man shapes his own life. I   
   >>>reject that doctrine philosophically. In that respect I am not a Jew.   
   >>>Albert Einstein   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>More...I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>"In a sense," he added, "we can hold no one responsible. I am a   
   >>determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will. The Jews believe   
   >>in free will—they believe that man shapes his own life. I reject that   
   >>doctrine philosophically. In that respect I am not a Jew."   
   >>   
   >> "Don’t you believe that man is a free agent, at least in a limited   
   >>sense?"   
   >>   
   >> Einstein smiled ingratiatingly. "I believe with Schopenhauer: *We can   
   >>do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must.* Practically, I am   
   >>nevertheless compelled to act as if freedom of the will existed. If I   
   >>wish to live in a civilized community, I must act as if man is a   
   >>responsible being.   
   >>   
   >> "I know that philosophically a murderer is not responsible for his   
   >>crime; nevertheless, I must protect myself from unpleasant contacts. I   
   >>may consider him guiltless, but I prefer not to take tea with him."   
   >>   
   >> "Do you mean to say that you did not choose your own career, but that   
   >>your actions were predetermined by some power outside yourself?"   
   >>   
   >> **The Danger of Too Much Analysis**   
   >>   
   >> "My own career was undoubtedly determined not by my own will, but by   
   >>various factors over which I have no control—primarily those   
   >>mysterious glands in which Nature prepares the very essence of life:   
   >>our internal secretions."   
   >>   
   >> "It may interest you," I interjected, "that Henry Ford once told me   
   >>he, too, did not carve out his own life, but that all his actions were   
   >>determined by an inner voice."   
   >>   
   >> "Ford," Einstein replied, "may call it his inner voice. Socrates   
   >>referred to it as his *daimon.* We moderns prefer to speak of our   
   >>glands or internal secretions. Each explains in his own way the   
   >>undeniable fact that the human will is not free."   
   >>   
   >> "Don’t you deliberately ignore all psychic factors in human   
   >>development? What, for instance," I asked, "is your attitude toward   
   >>the subconscious? According to Freud, psychic events registered   
   >>indelibly in our nether mind make and mar our lives."   
   >>   
   >> "Whereas materialistic historians and philosophers neglect psychic   
   >>realities, Freud is inclined to overstress their importance. I am not   
   >>a psychologist, but it seems to me fairly evident that physiological   
   >>factors—especially our endocrines—control our destiny."   
   >>   
   >> "Then you do not believe in psychoanalysis?"   
   >>   
   >> "I am not," Einstein modestly replied, "able to venture a judgment on   
   >>so important a phase of modern thought. However, it seems to me that   
   >>psychoanalysis is not always salutary. It may not always be helpful to   
   >>delve into the subconscious. The machinery of our legs is controlled   
   >>by a hundred different muscles. Do you think it would help us to walk   
   >>if we analyzed our legs and knew exactly which of the little muscles   
   >>must be employed in locomotion and the order in which they work?   
   >>   
   >> "Perhaps," he added with the whimsical smile that sometimes lights up   
   >>the somber pools of his eyes like a will-o’-the-wisp, "you remember   
   >>the story of the toad and the centipede? The centipede was very proud   
   >>of having one hundred legs. His neighbor, the toad, was much depressed   
   >>because he had only four. One day, a diabolic inspiration prompted the   
   >>toad to write a letter to the centipede as follows:   
   >>   
   >> *Honored Sir: Can you tell me which one of your hundred legs you move   
   >>first when you transfer your distinguished body from one place to   
   >>another, and in what order you move the other ninety-nine legs?*   
   >>   
   >> "When the centipede received this letter, he began to think. He tried   
   >>first one leg, then another. Finally, to his consternation, he   
      
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