<P>... I came--though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents--to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve . Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true . The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression . Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment--an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections . </P> <P> It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the' merely personal,' from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings . Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking . The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit . The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal . Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost . The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it . </P> <P> Einstein expressed his skepticism regarding the existence of an anthropomorphic God, such as the God of Abrahamic religions, often describing this view as "naïve" and "childlike". In a 1947 letter he stated, "It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously ." In a letter to Beatrice Frohlich on 17 December 1952, Einstein stated, "The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve ." </P> <P> Prompted by his colleague L.E.J. Brouwer Einstein read the philosopher Eric Gutkind's book Choose Life, a discussion of the relationship between Jewish revelation and the modern world . On January 3, 1954 Einstein sent the following reply to Gutkind, "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends.... For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions ." </P>

In the view of such harmony in the cosmos