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Re: [Phys-L] einstein anecdote



Interesting video.

I never met Einstein (or Newton, Galileo, etc.), so I'm not fully sure
what he believed.
Only what people recorded/remembered. This is true for most things we
never witnessed
in person. I mention Einstein in my classes, mostly the physics he did.
Religion never comes up...

Phys-L@Phys-L.org writes:
Dear Phys-L Colleagues:

We've all gotten the email about Einstein humiliating an atheistic
professor, an incident that never happened. Yesterday via Facebook
someone shared with me a dramatization of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JgpARGvBnc
They shared the link to say to me, "See! Einstein was a believer and he
sure dealt with that haughty professor! Hah!"

Nice production- problem is, it never happened. As we all know, Einstein
did not believe in a personal God that was concerned with the affairs of
humans.
http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp

Moments after viewing the video, I was disturbed because I knew the video
was not factual.

It is my understanding that Einstein admired the beauty and logic
underlying the natural world. He viewed values and morals as human
constructs.

In any event, I simply wanted to share the link. The video could actually
be used to stimulate an interesting discussion in class on the proper
role of religion, science, and historical accuracy...as well as what
Einstein really believed. Perhaps the point of the video production was,
I guess, to stimulate such discussion, though I believe there are serious
ethical issues here. The history shown should have been real history!

Thoughts? Corrections? Concerns? Just curious how the phys-l community
responds to this use of the "Einstein icon" by the culture.

Thanks!

David Ward
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@phys-l.org
http://www.phys-l.org/mailman/listinfo/phys-l