A letter from Einstein to a philosopher contemporary of his from 1954 has been sold at auction. In it, the legendary scientist professes the Bible to be “pretty childish” and that belief in a deity is the result of “human weakness.” Not a great deal of wiggle room. But people on both sides of the theism debate have been claiming Einstein as “one of ours” for 50 years, and these people are very good at obfuscation and interpretation.

In my role as an inflamer of opinion, here are some suggestions for points of argument:

1. Quibble over the what he meant by the word “belief.”
2. Claim that childish was mistranslated from innocent (Does anyone actually speak German? Who knows).
3. Since so few people knew about the letter before this week, you could say that it’s all a fabrication concocted by a world-wide cabal of atheists.
4. Suggest that Einstein wasn’t really all that smart.
5. Continue to take his old quotes out of context, regardless of the light this new piece of personal correspondence places them in.

In all seriousness, this letter will not change a single thing in the discussion of theism versus atheism. That’s because of a fundamental problem with fundamentalism: Dogmatic adherents can only agree with you up to a point, and after that point you are a zealot for the enemy and no longer intelligent.

Without dialogue, without back and forth, there is no growth. This is the problem with hard-nosed Evangelism. Preaching anything from a position of absolutism is not only irritating to your friends and loved ones, it is also worthless in terms of convincing others that you are right.

Now, because atheism is not a dogmatic world-view, I cannot say what other atheists think or believe, aside from the very likely assumption that they do not hold belief in any personal god or gods. But personally, my lack of belief is based on lack of evidence. I know that the theists’ argument is that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but that’s not convincing to me.

While there are atheists who are dogmatic, there are no religious people that are dogma-free. I’m throwing my lot in with the people who have a higher probability to be thinking for themselves.