prompted by his colleague l. e. j. brouwer, einstein read the philosopher eric gutkind's book "choose life", a discussion of the relationship between jewish revelation and the modern world. on january 3, 1954, einstein sent the following reply to gutkind: "the word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. ... for me the jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions." in 2018 his letter to gutkind was sold for $2.9 million.