I hardly think “Sure, Einstein was a cool guy and all, but how does that give him any religious authority at all?” is screaming groupie behavior.

Honestly, I have basically zero opinion of Einstein, at all, aside from having a generally positive opinion of his contributions to society.

Does it suck that he was a failure as a husband and not exactly parent of the year? Sure. Is that something we should necessarily bad-mouth him for? No, unless we’re willing to re-evaluate every other historical figure on the basis of that “ideal husband/wife” test from up-blog.

The answer, of course, is that it’s possible to recognize historical figures’ worthwhile accomplishments without turning into a screaming groupie about how COOOOOL they are, or handwaving away the negative side. I really don’t get the argument that we mustn’t consider Einstein a sexist because good golly then where would be be?

Really, the counterargument to the Einstein-had-faith wackaloons is “Yes, he was Jewish. Doesn’t it say something that one of the smartest people in history rejected Christ?”

I’d consider both of my parents pretty cool people, overall — both had extramarital affairs, and they are now divorced. They both did totally crappy things to each other, and to my brothers and I, in the course of their horribly unhappy marriage. And yet I still speak to them, because at the end of the day they’re both good people deserving of my respect and love.

AFAIK, the existence of divorce and the garden variety craptastic behavior of some men is not actually a feminist issue.

Not to mention, of course, that if we hold every well-respected male historical figure up against the “did they ever do anything crappy, like, EVER?” test, all of them fail.

This poster should be offensive to every American who believes in the seperation of church and state. However, if a Republican candidates picture and name was on it, Amanda would have written a 500 word post full of vitriol. How come we aren’t as offended by Obama?

http://race42008.com/2008/05/12/barack-obamas-pitch-in-kentucky/

No. But if in fact she WAS in favor of abortion being legal, I’m not going to devote energy to shooting it down on the merits of it being irrelevant to discussion, because an error of fact is much more compelling rhetorically than an argument about relevance.

It’s the same reason why when we get all naval gazey, Obama being a SEKRIT MUSLIM wouldn’t be a problem anyway, but the better means of dismissal, the one that carries more weight against those making the accusation, is that it’s not true in the first place.

And the “oo if only he was an atheist!” thing is, as oponax points out, silly. It’s the kind of thing you hear from atheists who think that all religion is of the “Christian idiots I went to high school with” variety: you either have complete faith or you’re not religious.

I really have to wonder about that letter; the thing about the Jews and not having power seems far more like a swipe at Israel than some prescience on Einstein’s part.

Why are so many people so defensive about this?* Does maltreatment of one’s family rank so low that someone who cheats on his wife and deserts the family (not to mention the fact that she was chronically ill) is still, overall, a “cool guy”?*

This is a feminist blog. It’s entirely appropriate to challenge the idea that one can mistreat women and children and still be “cool.”

* All starred questions are rhetorical, as I’m done sidetracking the thread from the intended topic.

Special Relativity=Atheism=Nuclear bomb

Hopefully we get to see Ben Stein stare down a statue of Einstein in this one.

So you would devote energy to trying to prove Susan B. Anthony was “really” in favor of abortion being legal, rather than conserving said energy for more legitimate pursuits that actually further the cause of reproductive justice?

I mean, I know that for the most part atheism is not a political movement and doesn’t face the same concerns about where to direct limited resources. But there’s a certain point at which devoting any energy to these stupid fundy talking points turns into letting them set the terms of debate.