A letter penned by one of the world’s most iconic thinkers, theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, is expected to fetch a whopping $1 million when it goes up for auction in early December.
Einstein sent the letter, written in 1954, to Jewish philosopher Erik Gutkind, according to CNN. The correspondence is commonly referred to as Einstein’s “God letter” because the legendary scientist used it to make clear his dismissal of religion.
Einstein's Religion-Bashing 'God Letter' Expected to Sell for $1.5 Million at Christie's https://t.co/d1sv7hEccr pic.twitter.com/wdkV0vL6Jr
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In the faith-bashing note, which was written in German, Einstein declared, “The word ‘God’ is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends, which are nevertheless pretty childish.”
Einstein, a German-born Jewish man who abandoned religion at an early age, even described Judaism in the letter as “like all other religions … an incarnation of the most childish superstition.”
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Peter Klarnet, senior specialist for books and manuscripts at Christie’s, the auction house selling the letter, told the Antiques Trade Gazette, that the famous note “concerns themes that have been central to human enquiry since the dawn of human consciousness.”
He went on to described Einstein’s letter to Gutkind as “one of the definitive statements in the religion v. science debate.”
The correspondence is expected to bring in somewhere between $1 million and $1.5 million. Christie’s will place the letter out for public display from Nov. 30 until Dec. 3. It goes up for auction Dec. 4.