Editing Nikola Tesla (section)

== Views and beliefs ==
[[File:Nikola Tesla by Sarony c1885-crop.png|thumb|Tesla {{circa}} 1885]]
=== On experimental and theoretical physics ===
Tesla disagreed with the theory of atoms being composed of smaller [[subatomic particle]]s, stating there was no such thing as an [[electron]] creating an electric charge. He believed that if electrons existed at all, they were some fourth state of matter or "sub-atom" that could exist only in an experimental vacuum and that they had nothing to do with electricity.{{sfn|O'Neill|1944|p=249}}<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA171 |title="The Prophet of Science Looks Into The Future," Popular Science November 1928, p. 171 |access-date=18 March 2013 |date=November 1928 |archive-date=23 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323124316/https://books.google.com/books?id=tCcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA171#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Tesla believed that atoms are immutable—they could not change state or be split in any way. He was a believer in the 19th-century concept of an all-pervasive [[Ether (classical element)|ether]] that transmitted electrical energy.<ref>{{harvnb|Seifer|2001|p=1745}}</ref>

Tesla was generally antagonistic towards theories about the conversion of matter into energy.{{sfn|O'Neill|1944|p=247}} He was also critical of Einstein's [[theory of relativity]], saying:

{{blockquote|I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view.<ref>''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'', 11 September 1932</ref>}}

In 1935 he described relativity as "a beggar wrapped in purple whom ignorant people take for a king" and said his own experiments had measured the speed of cosmic rays from [[Arcturus]] as fifty times the speed of light.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tesla, 79, Promises to Transmit Force |url=http://teslaresearch.jimdofree.com/articles-interviews/tesla-79-promises-to-transmit-force-new-york-times-july-11-1935/ |access-date=6 July 2022 |website=Open Tesla Research |language=en-US |archive-date=1 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701054231/https://teslaresearch.jimdofree.com/articles-interviews/tesla-79-promises-to-transmit-force-new-york-times-july-11-1935/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Tesla claimed to have developed his own physical principle regarding matter and energy that he started working on in 1892,{{sfn|O'Neill|1944|p=247}} and in 1937, at age 81, claimed in a letter to have completed a "dynamic theory of gravity" that "[would] put an end to idle speculations and false conceptions, as that of curved space". He stated that the theory was "worked out in all details" and that he hoped to soon give it to the world.<ref>[http://www.tesla.hu/tesla/articles/19370710.doc Prepared Statement by Nikola Tesla] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724105436/http://www.tesla.hu/tesla/articles/19370710.doc |date=24 July 2011 }} downloadable from http://www.tesla.hu {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225022943/http://tesla.hu/ |date=25 December 2018 }}</ref> Further elucidation of his theory was never found in his writings.{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=309}}

=== On society ===
{{Eugenics sidebar}}
Tesla is widely considered by his biographers to have been a [[Humanism|humanist]] in philosophical outlook.{{sfn|Jonnes|2004|p=154}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Innovation: The Lessons of Nikola Tesla |year=2008 |publisher=Blue Eagle |isbn=978-987-651-009-7 |page=43 |first1=Peter |last1=Belohlavek |first2=John W |last2=Wagner |quote=This was Tesla: a scientist, philosopher, humanist, and ethical man of the world in the truest sense.}}</ref> This did not preclude Tesla, like many of his era, from becoming a proponent of an imposed [[selective breeding]] version of [[eugenics]].

Tesla expressed the belief that human "pity" had come to interfere with the natural "ruthless workings of nature". Though his argumentation did not depend on a concept of a "master race" or the inherent superiority of one person over another, he advocated for eugenics. In a 1937 interview he stated:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct&nbsp;... The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/tesla/res/res_art11.html |title=A Machine to End War |date=February 1937 |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service |access-date=23 November 2010 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120214740/https://www.pbs.org/tesla/res/res_art11.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

In 1926, Tesla commented on the ills of the social subservience of women and the struggle of women toward [[gender equality]], and indicated that humanity's future would be run by "[[Queen bee (sociology)|Queen Bees]]". He believed that women would become the dominant sex in the future.<ref>Kennedy, John B., "[http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1926-01-30.htm When woman is boss] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606023652/http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1926-01-30.htm |date=6 June 2011 }}, An interview with Nikola Tesla." [[Collier's Weekly|Colliers]], 30 January 1926.</ref>

Tesla made predictions about the relevant issues of a post-World War I environment in a printed article entitled "Science and Discovery are the great Forces which will lead to the Consummation of the War" (20 December 1914).<ref>{{cite web |last=Tesla |first=Nikola |title=Science and Discovery are the great Forces which will lead to the Consummation of the War |url=http://www.rastko.rs/rastko/delo/10832 |publisher=Rastko |access-date=17 July 2012 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402053438/http://www.rastko.rs/rastko/delo/10832 |url-status=live }}</ref> Tesla believed that the [[League of Nations]] was not a remedy for the times and issues.<ref name="tesla1" />{{better source needed|date=January 2022}}

=== On religion ===
Tesla was raised an [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]]. Later in life he did not consider himself to be a "believer in the orthodox sense", said he opposed [[religious fanaticism]], and said "Buddhism and Christianity are the greatest religions both in number of disciples and in importance."<ref name="Viereck1937">{{cite web |title=A Machine to End War |url=https://www.pbs.org/tesla/res/res_art11.html |publisher=PBS.org |access-date=27 July 2012 |last=Tesla |first=Nikola |editor=George Sylvester Viereck |date=February 1937 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120214740/https://www.pbs.org/tesla/res/res_art11.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He also said "To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end" and "what we call 'soul' or 'spirit,' is nothing more than the sum of the functionings of the body. When this functioning ceases, the 'soul' or the 'spirit' ceases likewise."<ref name="Viereck1937" />