Before I go about writing my own views of God I felt it would only be apt to write down briefly how my favorite philosopher(along with Sankaracharya) lived. I am a great fan of Spinoza (Baruch de Espionoza) and hold him in great regard. When I read about him, I found that he thought in many ways like I do.
Spinoza lived an extremely simple and Spartan life. Although he is not Christian, you would find from Espinoza’s life (which I had given in brief below) that he had followed the sayings of Christ unknowingly and never coveted anything.
Espinoza’s parents came from the Iberian Peninsula in the 17th century and are Portuguese Jews They ran away to Holland as the Jews were being persecuted in all other parts of Europe at that time. Espinoza thoroughly studied the Old Testament as well as the Talmud (Jewish religious literature). He then studied the works of the Jewish philosophers Moses Maimonides, Hasdai Crescas and Ibn Ezra (These are considered to be the most brilliant of Jewish philosophers).
Spinoza lost faith in Jewish orthodoxy when the Jewish community excommunicated a skeptic called Euriel Acosta who questioned the established faith. So humiliated was Acosta that he committed suicide. This event made Espinoza lose faith in religion. When the elders of the Jewish community in Holland came to know that Espinoza was talking against the established faith, they were alarmed. They considered him to be a brilliant mind and a future light of their community. They immediately summoned him and offered him 500 dollars (remember that was a princely sum in the 17th century) if he gave up talking against the faith. Espinoza refused and was excommunicated. He was then just 24 years old. From then onwards he became a loner.
After his fathers death his sister tried to grab the property that should be rightfully Espinoza’s. He filed a suit in the court and won the case. He then gave away the property to his sister saying that he did not want the money but only wanted to prove that he was in the right. For his livelihood he polished lenses. He then contemplated and started writing his philosophical treatises and became famous throughout Europe. Some of the scientists of his time like Henry Oldenburg, Leibnitz and Christian Huygens have become great fans of his. His greatest fan was the rich Dutch businessman Simon Devries. He tried to bring Espinoza back amongst the society, but Espinoza was not willing. Devries felt bad about Espinoza’s poverty and offered 1000 dollars but Espinoza’s reply was no. After that he bequeathed his entire property to Espinoza, which he again declined.
Espinoza’s fame spread to Louis IX of France. He said he would give a handsome pension to Espinoza if he dedicated one of his works to him and as usual Espinoza refused. Heidelberg University (Germany) offered him the chair of philosophy with a rider that he should not criticize religion. Again Espinoza refused. Since he was polishing lenses, due to the dust entering into the lungs he suffered from Tuberculosis and died.
One of the terms that are frequently found in his writings is “God”(which he called substance). A philosopher described Espinoza as a “God intoxicated philosopher”. Despite that many of his contemporaries dubbed him as an atheist.
What are Espinoza’s opinions about God? He said that (God which he called substance) is the only existence and there is nothing that is not God. Its existence is not dependent on anything else. It is the cause and reason of all existence. It is infinite, eternal, self-existent, self-caused. It does not have anything called will. It does not do anything thinking of an end. If it does something thinking of an end it means it has a desire. Desire arises only when something is lacking. When there is nothing else apart from it, when it is complete by itself why would it have a desire or will?
This is just a brief glimpse of the great philosopher and I broadly agree with him on many of the things he said.
There are some things where my thinking is different from Espinoza’s. I would now write my own views about God in a later post as already this has grown too long and would tax anyone who bothers to read it.
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