Jesse, I agree that the evidence is that Einstein very probably believed in a non personal God of the universe. But there are those who try to prove he believed in a personal Biblical God and they do come up with some quotes they claim support their belief.
The quote you provide re an objective now are simply referencing the non-simultaneity cases of clock time which are well known but as I've pointed out ad nauseum do NOT falsify an actual present moment. That is clearly shown by the twins having NON-simultaneous clock times in the exact SAME present moment. And as this quote points out "the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed NOT completely suspended, just more complicated". And he goes on to note that there is an "EVOLUTION of a three dimensional existence in time" which clearly indicates what he really believed in was a 4-dimensional universe in which things EVOLVE, happen and change. That is NOT block time. It's a 4-dimensional universe in which things change and happen and become, though in a more complicated way than the old Newtonian way. So I would argue against your interpretation based on this quote... And of course using the present "in the ordinary everyday way" of direct observation is itself strong evidence that a present moment does actually exist and block time doesn't, and that everybody that uses it that way implicitly and most explicitly believe that.... Edgar On Monday, February 3, 2014 10:34:46 PM UTC-5, jessem wrote: > > > On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 8:28 PM, Edgar L. Owen <[email protected]<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> 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. >> > > All of his statements on religion I've seen seem completely consistent > with a Spinoza-esque pantheism, where do you think he contradicted himself > on religion? As for block time, that wasn't his only comment in support of > the idea, for example at http://everythingforever.com/einstein.htm we > find the following even more explicit endorsement of the block time view: > > 'Since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no > longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of > happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended, but yet > complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality > as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of > a three dimensional existence.' > > > >> >> 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. >> >> > Did he use it in the context of talking about the nature of time in > physics or philosophy, or was he just using it in the ordinary everyday > way, like talking about the "present political situation" or something? If > the latter, I think eternalists talk that way all the time, simultaneity > issues make no practical difference when you're just talking about events > confined to the Earth. And aside from simultaneity issues, talking about > the "present" doesn't preclude the possibility that other times are equally > real, it's just an indexical term like "here". > > Jesse > > > >> >> >> 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]> 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] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> >> . >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> > > -- 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.
