Einstein Called Faith 'Childish Superstition'

A relatively unknown letter by Albert Einstein, offered at auction Thursday in London, offers new details on the scientist's tangled relationship with religion, the Guardian reports. While believers often consider Einstein a scientist who maintained his religious faith, the 1954 letter calls the Bible "primitive legends," and "the word god … nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness."

Einstein writes that, although he is a member of the "Jewish people," Judaism for him is, like other religions, "an incarnation of the most childish superstitions." The letter, sent to a philosopher and written in German, does not appear in the authoritative book Einstein and Religion, and at least one expert on the topic admitted he was unaware of it. (More Albert Einstein stories.)