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Christie's auctioneers said on Thursday that
the so-called God Letter, written by Einstein in 1954, would be
placed on public exhibit in San Francisco and New York ahead of
the Dec. 4 auction.
The 1-1/2 page letter, written in German to philosopher Eric
Gutkind, is regarded as a key manuscript in the debate over
science and religion and is Einstein's clearest statement of his
views on the universal search for the meaning life.
The scientist and philosopher wrote the missive a year before
his death in 1955 and it is being sold by a private collector.
"The word God is for me nothing but the expression and product
of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but
still rather primitive legends. No interpretation, no matter how
subtle, can (for me) change anything about this,” Einstein
wrote.
Einstein did not exclude Judaism, saying he admired and loved
his people, but that he did not believe they were chosen above
others.
"For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an
incarnation of the most childish superstition," he wrote, adding
"I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.".
Peter Klarnet, a books and manuscripts specialist at Christie's,
said the letter "concerns themes that have been central to human
enquiry since the dawn of human consciousness, and it is one of
the definitive statements in the Religion vs Science debate."
Christie's placed a $1 million to $1.5 million estimate on the
letter. In 2002, the auction house sold a typed letter from
Einstein to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for $2 million.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Tom Brown)
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