[Right Wing Professor]

I have no idea what you think the difference between a 'personal god' and a 'cosmic intelligence' is. Einstein used the metaphor of 'god' to express his feeling that the Universe obeyed a set of meaningful and consitent laws. He also expressed regret this metaphor was exploited by the religious to attribute to him beliefs he did not hold. This thread is a case in point.

[silverleaf]

Einstein used the metaphor of 'god' to express his feeling that the Universe obeyed a set of meaningful and consitent laws.

Nice try prof, but...who "wrote" the laws?

Einstein (and others before him and since) express awareness that the existence of natural laws with their extraordinary complexity, is not logically attributable to chance. Therefore more logically, there is intention...authorship...design...creation....a singularity...call it what they will, and do. It is a bit amusing to read the works of those scientists who eschew the theory of God. They make heavy use of small caps (god), quote marks ("god", and their own metaphors...."cosmic intelligence"

I believe it was Einstein who once compared scientists to small children entering a great library containing all the great books and spending their lives trying to absorb the knowledge...without ever contemplating or even being intellectually capable of considering who wrote the books or why.. I believe this metaphor came as part of his discussion where he said " Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind..."

Authorship (design/creation/et al) .... is where science stops. As uncomfortable as that thought may be to some. Lack of certainty, and Discomfort on the part of some, about what came before science...should not be a reason to exclude an encompassing dialogue from the science classroom.