Einstein and God

I'm sure everyone has read on his email or has seen a youtube video of how an atheist Professor was tripped up by a little boy and that boy was Einstein.  If you haven't, this is the best version of that story, mainly because it's in video form with excellent cinematographic effects.  It's even more convincing because it's in German with English subtitles:

When I first saw the video,  I knew something was wrong because in the first place, the boy's arguments are the same trite flawed arguments I've heard from evangelical Christians.  I could not believe that Einstein would be that stupid as to advance such obviously erroneous arguments.  It would be a sad day for physics and his theory of relativity if he did.

But of course, this is a famous urban legend and if you are interested in its origin and falsehood, you may want to read this link (possibly the most comprehensive available):

Urban legend - Einstein

There is also another link to a different website that explains this urban legend quite well too:

Another link on Einstein and God

It's absolutely indisputable what Einstein's view of God was.  He called religion a "childish superstition" and if you want a reliable source for this, you may click on this link:

Guardian newspaper - Einstein and God

In other words, the story about Einstein and the professor contained in the video and email postings is a lie manufactured by someone who's desirous of making our faith look good.

As everyone knows, I'm a devout Christian but if there's one thing that really embarrasses me, it's our shoddy attempt to defend God from a charge of non-existence.  He's accused of not existing simply because there is ZILCH evidence for his existence, and I do mean zero, naught, nil.  But cooking up a false story in a stylishly produced movie complete with wonderful effects just to glorify the faith by dragging in someone as illustrious as Einstein is morally wrong.   Why do we Christians spin such a dishonest yarn about Einstein and the professor?

93% of scientists in the US are atheists.  That's a fact that you can easily google if you don't believe me.  Just google "93% scientists are atheists" and you will have the sources.  It's probably much worse in Europe which has seen a huge decline in belief.  We also know that we are habitually trounced by atheists in debates and arguments.  The only way we can win some ground is to go into sophistry in a convoluted philosophical argument and question everything right down to the reliability of our senses, truth, etc but any atheist can see the weakness of such an argument.  If accepted, such a ludicrous argument will negate the need for a debate in the first place which of course suits us fine because the only way to stop getting thrashed in a debate is not to debate and what better escape route there is for us than to remove all the goal posts and declare that everything is unreliable and we can't have a debate in the first place?

Given the lack of respectable justification for us to have faith, it is therefore not surprising when we see instances of Christians telling lies for God.  I have been guilty of that myself.  I think I wrote an account of it a couple of years ago in this blog.  The fruit of that lie was I made it easier for three persons to accept the Christian faith.

[EDIT: Yes, I did write a confession of having told lies for God two years ago, or on 21 May 2010, to be precise.  Here's the link:   My confession ]

But as I grow older, I know that lying for God is the last thing we should do.  Honesty means everything to me and our Lord makes it plain in St John's Gospel that those who tell lies have Satan for their father.

Before I end this post, I should stress that the many Christians who share this video and other similar but equally false stories of Einstein and his professor are probably not dishonest.  Most Christians believe their faith to be 100% correct and flawless.  They find it perplexing why an intelligent brain like Einstein's would reject the gospel.  They are told from a very young age that clever people are usually proud and pride stands in the way between them and the Gospel of salvation.  And they believe that to this day.

The real liars are probably the makers of the film.  I find it hard to believe that anyone would make a film without first finding out more about the subject matter of the film.  If they knew the story to be a lie and they went on to produce the film, they would be guilty of dishonesty.

Knowing now that the video is a lie, would we continue to disseminate it, perpetuating a lie and upholding that very embarrassing tradition of telling lies for God?  Bear in mind that telling lies for God is not the straight and narrow path that our Lord urges us to take.