A handwritten letter in which Albert Einstein challenges the idea of God and the notion of being "chosen" is going up for sale on eBay this month with an opening bid of $3 million, auction agency Auction Cause has announced.
The note, dubbed the "God letter" and penned a year before Einstein's death, contains the famed physicist's views on religion, the Bible and the concept of God.
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According to an Auction Cause translation, the letter says:
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this.
For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.
As Reuters notes, the letter -- which Einstein wrote to Jewish philosopher Erik Gutkind -- "offers insights into the private thoughts…of one of the world's most brilliant minds."
Eric Gazin, the president of Auction Cause, the Los Angeles-based premier auction agency that is handling the eBay sale, says the letter is significant for a number of reasons.
