Jesse, That's possible but it's only one quote and considering the circumstances it could have just been an attempt to provide comfort to the grieving family. Also Einstein is known to have spoken metaphorically at times and even to seemingly contradict himself on occasion (eg. on religious belief), so I think one would need to have more than just that one quote to make a convincing case.
On the other hand I suspect one can find very many Einstein quotes in which he mentions the PRESENT which would stand in direct contradiction to a belief in a block universe. Don't you agree? Edgar On Monday, February 3, 2014 7:37:44 PM UTC-5, jessem wrote: > > > On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 6:44 PM, Edgar L. Owen <[email protected]<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> Liz, >> >> You keep repeating your UNSUBSTANTIATED claim that both Newton and >> Einstein believed in block time. >> >> I've repeatedly asked you to substantiate this claim with some actual >> quotes from them but you have been unable to do so. >> >> Please provide quotes substantiating this or withdraw the claim. That's >> only fair... >> > > In Einstein's case this does definitely seem to be his own belief, for > example when his lifelong friend Michael Besso died in 1955, he sent his > family a letter in which he wrote: > > "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That > means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the > distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly > persistent illusion." > > I think the serious context of this letter likely precludes the > possibility that he was joking, or that he was just speaking in an offhand > way about how relativity models the world as opposed to expressing a belief > about the way the world really is. > > Jesse > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
