XPost: sci.physics.relativity, sci.math, alt.atheism   
   From: starmaker@ix.netcom.com   
      
   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   
   >discovered that he was unable to move a single leg. He could no longer   
   >walk at all—he was paralyzed!   
   >   
   > "It is possible," Einstein concluded, "that analysis may paralyze our   
   >mental and emotional processes in a similar manner."   
   >   
      
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