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 the human being since ancient times, which has 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 religious referents that has most influenced Western thought since the seventeenth century. In this article we will see what the God of Spinoza was like and in what way this thinker lived spirituality.

• Related article: "How are Psychology and Philosophy alike?"

The scientific and the religious

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

Many scientists have considered that belief in a higher 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 is outside the world. This is the case of the renowned philosopher Baruch de Spinoza and his conception of God, which has subsequently been followed by renowned scientists such as Albert Einstein.

The God of Spinoza

Baruch de Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632, and he has been regarded as one of the three greatest rationalist philosophers of the seventeenth century. His reflections were a deep criticism of the classical and orthodox view of religion, which he ended for generating the excommunication of him by his community and the banishment of him, as well as the prohibition and censorship of his writings of him.

His view of the world and of faith closely approximates pantheism, that is, the idea that the sacred is all of nature itself.

The reality according to this thinker

Spinoza's ideas were based on the idea that reality is made up of a single substance, unlike Rene Descartes, that defended the existence of the res cogitans and the extensive res. And this 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, They 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 that it permeates 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 parallel logics.

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.

The God of Spinoza would not give a purpose to the world, but this is a part of him. It is considered natural nature, that is, what it 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.

• Related article: "Types of religion (and their differences in beliefs and ideas)"

The man and the moral

This thought leads this thinker to say that God does not need to be worshiped nor does it establish a moral system, this being a product of man. There are no good or bad 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, as everything is part of the same substance and nothing exists outside of it. Thus, for him freedom is based on reason and the understanding of reality.

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

• Maybe you are interested: "Dualism in Psychology"

Einstein and his beliefs

Spinoza's beliefs earned him the disapproval of his people, excommunication, and censorship. 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 manifest his difficulty in answering the question of whether he believed in the existence of God. While he did not share the idea of ​​a personal God, he stated that he considered the human mind is unable to understand 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 was closer to pantheistic agnosticism. In fact, he would criticize bigotry on the part of both believers and atheists. The winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics would also reflect that his religious posture and beliefs approximated those of God of Spinoza, as something that does not direct and punish us but is simply part of everything and manifests itself through this everything. For him, the laws of nature existed and provided a certain order in chaos, divinity manifesting in harmony.

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