What was Spinoza's God like and why did Einstein believe in him?

What are we? Why are we here? Does existence itself make sense? How, where and when did the universe originate? These and other questions have aroused the curiosity of human beings since ancient times, who have tried to offer different types of explanation, such as those coming from religion and science.

The philosopher Baruch Spinoza, for example, created a philosophical theory that served as one of the most influential religious references in Western thought since the 17th century. In this article we will see how Spinoza's God was and how this thinker lived spirituality.

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The scientific and the religious

Science and religion. Both concepts have been continually confronted throughout history. One of the issues in which they have collided the most is the existence of God or of different gods who have hypothetically created and regulate nature and existence in general.

Many scientists have considered that the belief in a superior entity supposes

an unrealistic way of explaining reality. However, this does not imply that scientists cannot have their own religious beliefs.

Some great figures in history have even maintained the existence of God, but not as a personal entity that exists and apart from the world. This is the case of the renowned philosopher Baruch de Spinoza and his conception of God, which have subsequently been followed by renowned scientists such as Albert Einstein.

Spinoza's God

Baruch de Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632., and he has been considered one of the three greatest rationalist philosophers of the 17th century. His reflections led to a profound criticism of the classical and orthodox vision of religion, which ended for generating the excommunication of him by his community and banishment from him, as well as the prohibition and censorship of his writings.

His vision of the world and of faith is very close to pantheism, that is, the idea that the sacred is all of nature itself.

The reality according to this thinker

The ideas defended by Spinoza were based on the idea that reality is made up of a single substance, contrary to Rene Descartes, who defended the existence of the res cogitans and the res extensa. And said substance is nothing other than God, an infinite entity with multiple properties and dimensions of which we can only know a part.

In this way, thought and matter are only expressed dimensions of said substance or modes, and everything that surrounds us, including ourselves, are parts that make up the divine in the same way. Spinoza believed that the soul is not something exclusive to the human mind, but pervades everything: stones, trees, landscapes, etc.

Thus, from the point of view of this philosopher, what we usually attribute to the extracorporeal and the divine is the same thing as the material; it is not part of a parallel logic.

Spinoza and his concept of divinity

God is conceptualized not as a personal and personified entity that directs existence externally to it, but as the set of all that exists, which is expressed both in the extension and in the thought. In other words, God is considered to be reality itself, which is expressed through nature. This would be one of the particular ways in which God expresses himself.

Spinoza's God would not give a purpose to the world, but this is a part of him. He is considered natural nature, that is, what he is and gives rise to different modes or natural natures, such as thought or matter. In short, for Spinoza God is everything and outside of him there is nothing.

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man and morality

This thought leads this thinker to say that God he does not need to be worshiped nor does he establish a moral system, being this a product of man. There are neither bad nor good acts per se, these concepts being mere elaborations.

Spinoza's conception of man is deterministic: he does not consider the existence of free will as such, since everything is part of the same substance and nothing exists outside of it. Thus, for him freedom is based on reason and understanding of reality.

Spinoza also considered that there is no mind-body dualism, but that it was the same indivisible element. He also did not consider the idea of ​​transcendence in which soul and body are separated, what was lived in life being important.

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Einstein and his beliefs

Spinoza's beliefs earned him the disapproval of his people, excommunication, and censure. However, his ideas and works remained and were accepted and appreciated by a large number of people throughout history. One of them was one of the most valued scientists of all time, Albert Einstein..

The father of the theory of relativity had religious interests in childhood, although these interests would later change throughout his life. Despite the apparent conflict between science and faith, in some interviews Einstein would express his difficulty in answering the question of whether he believed in the existence of God. Although he did not share the idea of ​​a personal God, he stated that he considered that the human mind is not capable of understanding the entire universe or how it is organized, despite being able to perceive the existence of a certain order and harmony.

Although he has often been classified as a convinced atheist, Albert Einstein's spirituality he was closer to a pantheistic agnosticism. In fact, he would criticize fanaticism by both believers and atheists. The winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics would also reflect that his religious position and beliefs were close to the views of Spinoza's God, as something that does not direct and punish us but is simply part of everything and manifests itself through this all. For him, the laws of nature existed and provided a certain order in chaos, manifesting divinity in harmony.

He also believed that science and religion are not necessarily in conflict, since both pursue the search for and understanding of reality. Furthermore, both attempts to explain the world mutually stimulate each other.