Then tell the story as is, without Einstein… We didn’t feel a need to name the Professor, why name the student? -Could have been any student, right?
It’s a purposeful deception, used to try to lend credibility to the story and attempt to give it some greater import. I think it does the opposite.
Yes, it could have been anyone, but the main point is how the answer was obtained. It’s just a story, my friend; it’s not from Scripture!
It’s good to discuss it. If your intention was to use it as a “witnessing” tool, it’s a poor one. The telling and retelling of something you know to be not true, destroys your credibility.
If it’s “just a story” you should preface it with something like-- “a story has been told about when Albert Einstein was a student… I don’t know that it’s a true story, but it goes like this…”
Well, of course, my friend, you are right! But I noticed one thing: when I write in Russian, then check it with a special program to make sure there are no mistakes, and then translate it into English, what do you think? The translation is completely different, both in meaning and emphasis.
Here and now, what I wrote to you is not what I meant. It’s something completely different. It seems to me that there are words that don’t translate or simply don’t exist.
I think you do remarkably well. AI translator tools are getting better and better, and I recognize the extra effort you put in to communicate with us.
I applaud you.
This could have easily been an anecdote in one of the “who created evil?” -threads. What are the origins of evil-- God or Satan?
A smart professor once asked a student an interesting question at the university.
Professor: Is God good?
Student: Yes.
Professor: Is the Devil good?
…
Student: No.
Professor: That’s right. Tell me, son, is there evil on Earth?
Student: Yes.
Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it? And God created everything, right?
Student: Yes.
Professor: So who created evil?
Student: …
Professor: Is there ugliness, impudence, disease, ignorance on the planet? All of these things exist, right?
Student: Yes, sir.
Professor: So who created them?
Student: …
Professor: Science says that man has 5 senses to explore the world around him. Tell me, son, have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.
Professor: Tell us, have you heard God?
Student: No, sir.
Professor: Have you ever felt God? Taste him? Smell him?
Student: I’m afraid not, sir.
Professor: And you still believe in him?
Student: Yes.
Professor: From the conclusions we’ve reached, science can say that God doesn’t exist. Can you counter that?
Student: No, Professor. I have only faith.
Professor: Exactly. Faith is the main problem with science.
Student: Professor, does cold exist?
Professor: What kind of question is that? Of course it does. Have you ever felt cold?
(The students laughed at the young man’s question.)
Student: Actually, sir, cold doesn’t exist. According to the laws of physics, what we think of as cold is really the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied to see if it has or transmits energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees Fahrenheit) is the complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel when heat is absent.
(There was silence in the classroom)
Student: Professor, does darkness exist?
Professor: Of course it does. What is night if not darkness:
Student: You are wrong again, sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is really the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness. We can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the different wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple beam of light can penetrate a world of darkness and illuminate it. How do you know how dark a space is? You measure how much light is present. Isn’t that right? Darkness is a concept humans use to describe what happens when there is no light. Now tell me, sir, is there death?
Professor: Of course. There is life, and there is death, the other side of life.
Student: You are wrong again, Professor. Death is not the other side of life, it is the absence of life. There is a serious crack in your scientific theory.
Professor: What are you getting at, young man?
Student: Professor, you teach your students that we all evolved from monkeys. Have you seen evolution with your own eyes?
The professor shook his head with a smile, realizing where this was going.
Student: No one has seen it, which means you are more of a priest than a scientist.
(The audience burst into laughter)
Student: Now tell me, is there anyone in this class who has seen the professor’s brain? Heard it, smelled it, touched it?
(Students continued to laugh)
Student: Apparently no one. Then, based on scientific facts, we can conclude that the professor has no brain. With all due respect to you, professor, how can we trust what you said in your lectures?
(The audience fell silent)
Professor: I think you just have to believe me.
Student: That’s it! There is one connection between God and man - and that is FAITH!
The professor sat down.
This student’s name was Albert Einstein.
This is the full version of the story.
Friends, I don’t know if this is true or not, but it’s wonderful.
Except you do know that it is not true, because I told you.
I hope you can see my point in this… if you stretch the truth about something so easily disproven, how could anyone trust anything you say or promote?
The truth needs no embellishments.
No, I’m not embellishing or promoting anything, it’s just a story from a book and that’s all.
My friend, there are a lot of philosophical books with smart words, and I have already told you that this is not from Scripture!
I’ll leave you with it Farid. Yes, it’s obvious that it’s not from scripture. That’s not the problem. The problem is that it isn’t true.
Maybe we need a new category, called “Lying for Jesus.”
Have you met educated and uneducated people? It’s interesting to talk to educated people because they have a broad perspective, know a lot, and it’s engaging to listen to them and learn something. They have either studied and read themselves, or knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation, and they possess life experience. Some of their knowledge comes from books written by thoughtful individuals! Can we say that they speak untruths? What about those who are uneducated, those who don’t know much? You can recognize them immediately by their conversation and behavior; you won’t learn much from them, and you won’t gain anything interesting, and they might not even understand you. Please tell me, do you think that educating people in schools and universities is right? Is there also falsehood there? They say that psychology is not a science. Does a child need natural sciences if he loves music or drawing and has no inclination towards the natural sciences? Yet another child loves mathematics but gets failing grades in all other subjects. You know, I recently learned that one priest allowed same-sex marriages. I am not promoting or advertising anything; I am not teaching anyone; I engage with intelligent people, learn, and accumulate life experience.
Some of the smartest, most intelligent and most successful people I know, either never went to college, or dropped out of college because they discovered it to be a mostly useless enterprise.
Education and intelligence don’t always go hand-in-glove.
I used the term ‘lying for Jesus’ quite tongue-in-cheek. One could argue that Jesus was lying for Jesus, when he made up parables. Listen to any number of Joel Osteen sermons and you’ll hear multitudes of feel-good anectdotes that he represents as true, or doesn’t even bother pretending they are true.
But when you assign a name to it… like Albert Einstein, it changes your amusing anecdote into a deception. Since I don’t believe that Jesus was a liar, I don’t believe the story about the rich man, Lazarus and Abraham was made up. If it wasn’t true, then Jesus was indeed lying for Jesus too.
This has gone too far; it needs to stop.
Agreed.
The angry atheist professor stereotype is an overused, overplayed hand that should be over. It does the Christian cause no good to insult and discredit skeptics and it’s an insult to intelligence to promote such self-congratulatory silliness.
Did you know that your little story was made into a movie?
The word lucifer is found only 1 time in the Bible. The old typology of it being a reference to Satan was rejected by expositors in the Reformation. But traditions of men die hard. It came back with the Schofield Study Bible pub. in 1908.
Context is key: The LORD’s command to Isaiah in chapter 14, verse 4: “…you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon…”
The Latin, lucifer (morning star) is the translation of the Greek heosphoros (Venus) used in the LXX –(the Greek translation of the Old Testament made by Jews in the 3rd Century B.C.)– to translate the Hebrew, heylel