Student: Yes, sir.
Professor: So, you believe in GOD?"
.... and then it ends by saying:"By the way, that student was EINSTEIN."
That is how the story ends on Facebook. As I suspected that this could not be from Einstein I just googled on it and... of course not.
The full story from a Christian site can be read here.
The student was not Einstein. This is a story that circulates on the net, especially on Christian websites, and usually, they just say that it is a conversation between an atheist professor and a Christian student.
At first sight, I found the story nonsensical as it is the same story that I have already heard hundreds of versions of for 50 years and they have been going on for at least 300 years. The same wheel is just going round and round obviously forever. Why? What is wrong?
First of all you cannot use a word and then claim that this word means something that does not exist. Every real word (that is being used) means something so the first question is: what does it mean?
You will have to agree upon the precise meaning of it, otherwise, you cannot discuss it. The talking is doomed to fail if you do not know what you are talking about. As in this case where the whole discussion is nonsensical and probably invented by some Christians.
The problem is also that the word "believe" has two different meanings, which means that you have to know which one you are talking about. Usually, the difference is indicated by a preposition, but people don´t seem to notice that. "I believe this" or "I believe in this."
1.
"I believe this!" = "I believe that this is true". (I believe that the gas is finished in my car!")
In this way, you can believe something that you are not interested in and almost never think about. Your belief is falsifiable.
2.
"I believe in this!" = This is the picture or story that I constantly feed myself with, it is my inner vision, the spirit of my energy, my spiritual food. Ex. "I believe in Krishna!"
Your belief is not falsifiable.
"I believe that Krishna is in another dimension dancing on a meadow playing the flute".
Here the preposition is dropped so we cannot know if this belief is the first one or the second one and the confusion starts.
The question "Do you believe in God?" belongs to number 2 and is OK. (But we have to agree on the meaning of the word.)
In the sentence "Is God good?" both the noun and the preposition are dropped and we no longer know what we talk about, and we forget where we are and take for granted that we are talking about number 1, so any answer triggers attempts of falsifications of it.
It is the same in Swedish, but I would guess that there are other languages that can make a better and more clear distinction about the two sorts of beliefs.
In the old times it was not so that this word had a double meaning.
"Believe" is from Old English belyfan "to have faith or confidence" (in a person) and it can be traced back to PIE-root leubh- , meaning to care, desire, love. So the words "believe" and "love" are from the same Indoeuropean root.
Believe = "accept as true" is from the Middle Ages, from around 13-1400. From the dawning of a strictly materialistic view upon reality.
Did Einstein say anything about God?
A famous quote from Einstein about God is this:
‘The word God is for me
nothing but the expression
and product of human weakness’
