XPost: sci.physics.relativity, sci.math, alt.atheism
From: starmaker@ix.netcom.com

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."

 "Are you then an opponent of Freud?"

 "By no means. I am not prepared to accept all his conclusions, but I
consider his work an immensely valuable contribution to the science of
human behavior. I think he is even greater as a writer than as a

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