Spinoza's God: A glimpse of pantheism
NOTE TO READER: the following is totally my opinion and understanding of Pantheism. If any of it is wrongfully interpreted then please feel free to correct in the comments.
DUES SIVE NATURA ~Baruch Spinoza
The belief of God being a distant, astral entity, with a huge white beard and who loves all the humans unconditionally, cannot be any farther from the true depiction of God itself.
Born in a Jewish society of amsterdam in 1632, Baruch was a studious and exceptionally intelligent child. He has recieved a strict jewish education from the jewish schools called Yeshiva. Baruch, clebrated all holidays of the jews, studied their faiths and laws. However, he slowly started to distance himself from the faith of his ancestors, feeling an strong urge to know and embrace other views. His full philosophy is expressed in his famous book 'Ethics', which was published in the year 1677.
Spinoza, described God to be within the universe. Unlike the religious beliefs of God residing in a distant realm called 'Heaven', he claimed that God exists within us, in nature, In universe and even in that fat kitty down the road who gets fed by all the people in the neighbourhood (Ok, he did not say that but you do get the point). In his book 'Ethics' he directly challenged the organized religions like judaism and many more. He asserted that, there is no one to hear our prayers, god is not anyone outside the nature, there is no one to punish our sins, there is no afterlife, and God is not someone who loves us all and will change the norm of reality just to fullfil our wishes.
Unlike in Theism where God and Universe
are viewed as separate entities, in Pantheism
the God and the Universe are interconnected
Rather 'God' is impersonal, the reason, the truth, the logic, the universe and its laws. Spinoza himself said "God is eternal, all things are in God, and God is in all things". God, nature and the universe are interconnected together like a tight fabric, and they cannot be viewed separately. He saw god as a substance rather than as a figure of a man.In his book 'Ethics' he directly, opposes the idea of theism. Baruch also rejects the ideas of prayers. In prayer, a person asks the 'God' to help the person in anyway which could be beneficial to them. However, he argues that the main task of humans on this earth is to understand how the universe works, regardless of whether it aligns with their desires, and to accept it. To him, prayers seemed to be the protests against the way of the universe. God has set his own timetable, and it would take a huge narcissist, to ask 'lord heavens above' to change the way of universe and reality just for thier own good. Baruch was inspired by many philosophies, especially ancient Stoicism. As the philosophy of Stoicism goes, we should change the things in our life that can be changed and not waste our time in protesting against the unchangeable reality of some things; rather, we should accept them gracefully and move on. This kind of stoic thinking is found imbued throughout the philosophy of Spinoza.
To understand God, according to the philosopher, we need to understand the workings of the nature and universe, which, as I said earlier is the main task of humans. We can connect this to a quote from one of the greatest scientist to ever live, Sir Isaac Newton, which is as follows: "The more i study science, the more i believe in God".
Even though Newton did not exactly mean this in a pantheistic way, we can still see that by studying our surrounding nature and the universe, we observe just how inseparable they are from God.
Later, Spinoza presented two kinds of way to look at life: 'Sub Specie Durationis' (Under the aspect of time) and 'Sub Specie Aeternitatis' (Under the aspect of eternity). Sub Species Durationis refers to the egoistic view, looking at life and things with our limited and narrow knowledge. On the other hand, Sub Specie Aeternitatis means, looking at things eternally and understanding how everything is interconnected and determined. Our human nature is such that our materialistic and hedonistic desires will pull us towards the time-bound view, while our intelligence and logic will guide us towards the eternal view. Most people keep coming back and forth between these two views.
He forsaw his philosophy as a route that leads to a life free from guilt, shame, or sorrow. Spinoza said that to achieve true happiness, one should align their will with that of the universe. Only then will a person be able to expirience true divinity.
Also, saying such bold things at that time and age came with its own consequences. He was ostracized from his jewish community of Amsterdam and was cursed by them. This forced him to flee and later setlle in The Hague, where he lived peacfully with no intervention in his life as a lens grinder, until his death in the year 1677.
Even though, through all his works, Spinoza wanted to bring a bold change to the religious world, by introducing a god that is impersonal, rational, omnipresent and at times consoling, he was not able to bring the kind of change he desired. For a long time his works were lost in history until the philosopher of the twentieth century, shed light at his ideas reviving his works from the past. One thing that Spinoza failed to understand is that, people do not follow religion just for 'reason' but rather the culture, festivals, community, musics and art that it harboured. The organized religions had more support than his ideas and beliefs; hence, people continued to follow the religions they belonged to then and still do now.
"God is the IMMANENT, not the TRANSIENT cause of everything"
Spinoza, described God to be within the universe. Unlike the religious beliefs of God residing in a distant realm called 'Heaven', he claimed that God exists within us, in nature, In universe and even in that fat kitty down the road who gets fed by all the people in the neighbourhood (Ok, he did not say that but you do get the point). In his book 'Ethics' he directly challenged the organized religions like judaism and many more. He asserted that, there is no one to hear our prayers, god is not anyone outside the nature, there is no one to punish our sins, there is no afterlife, and God is not someone who loves us all and will change the norm of reality just to fullfil our wishes.
|
| Unlike in Theism where God and Universe are viewed as separate entities, in Pantheism the God and the Universe are interconnected |
Rather 'God' is impersonal, the reason, the truth, the logic, the universe and its laws. Spinoza himself said "God is eternal, all things are in God, and God is in all things". God, nature and the universe are interconnected together like a tight fabric, and they cannot be viewed separately. He saw god as a substance rather than as a figure of a man.In his book 'Ethics' he directly, opposes the idea of theism. Baruch also rejects the ideas of prayers. In prayer, a person asks the 'God' to help the person in anyway which could be beneficial to them. However, he argues that the main task of humans on this earth is to understand how the universe works, regardless of whether it aligns with their desires, and to accept it. To him, prayers seemed to be the protests against the way of the universe. God has set his own timetable, and it would take a huge narcissist, to ask 'lord heavens above' to change the way of universe and reality just for thier own good.
Baruch was inspired by many philosophies, especially ancient Stoicism. As the philosophy of Stoicism goes, we should change the things in our life that can be changed and not waste our time in protesting against the unchangeable reality of some things; rather, we should accept them gracefully and move on. This kind of stoic thinking is found imbued throughout the philosophy of Spinoza.
To understand God, according to the philosopher, we need to understand the workings of the nature and universe, which, as I said earlier is the main task of humans. We can connect this to a quote from one of the greatest scientist to ever live, Sir Isaac Newton, which is as follows: "The more i study science, the more i believe in God".
Even though Newton did not exactly mean this in a pantheistic way, we can still see that by studying our surrounding nature and the universe, we observe just how inseparable they are from God.
Later, Spinoza presented two kinds of way to look at life: 'Sub Specie Durationis' (Under the aspect of time) and 'Sub Specie Aeternitatis' (Under the aspect of eternity). Sub Species Durationis refers to the egoistic view, looking at life and things with our limited and narrow knowledge. On the other hand, Sub Specie Aeternitatis means, looking at things eternally and understanding how everything is interconnected and determined. Our human nature is such that our materialistic and hedonistic desires will pull us towards the time-bound view, while our intelligence and logic will guide us towards the eternal view. Most people keep coming back and forth between these two views.
He forsaw his philosophy as a route that leads to a life free from guilt, shame, or sorrow. Spinoza said that to achieve true happiness, one should align their will with that of the universe. Only then will a person be able to expirience true divinity.
Also, saying such bold things at that time and age came with its own consequences. He was ostracized from his jewish community of Amsterdam and was cursed by them. This forced him to flee and later setlle in The Hague, where he lived peacfully with no intervention in his life as a lens grinder, until his death in the year 1677.
Even though, through all his works, Spinoza wanted to bring a bold change to the religious world, by introducing a god that is impersonal, rational, omnipresent and at times consoling, he was not able to bring the kind of change he desired. For a long time his works were lost in history until the philosopher of the twentieth century, shed light at his ideas reviving his works from the past. One thing that Spinoza failed to understand is that, people do not follow religion just for 'reason' but rather the culture, festivals, community, musics and art that it harboured. The organized religions had more support than his ideas and beliefs; hence, people continued to follow the religions they belonged to then and still do now.
"God is the IMMANENT, not the TRANSIENT cause of everything"
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