Spinoza's God

[yasiel]

When asked if he believed in God, Albert Einstein famously repied that he believed in Spinoza's God. 

 

If Spinoza'e God is consistent with Einstein's theories of relativity, can Christianity be consistent with both? Stoicism is a common thread.  

[pantheory]

yasiel,

Welcome to X-Christian, hope you enjoy yourself here.

"Spinoza believed that God is “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator”. ... God is the only substance in the universe, and everything is a part of God. “Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be or be conceived without God”."

This is the same or very similar to pantheism. "Pantheism is the belief that reality is identical with divinity, or that all-things compose an all-encompassing, immanent God."   Wikipedia

 

So IMO this is not necessarily a belief, it can simply be a definition of God, if you like it. Therefore, if the universe exists, so does God exist since they are identical to each other.

 

Spinoza's God

 

your quote: If Spinoza'e God is consistent with Einstein's theories of relativity, can Christianity be consistent with both?  Stoicism is a common thread.  

 

Einstein's theories of Special and General relativity say nothing of God, they are totally scientific with a lot of mathematics. Christianity has no commonality with Spinoza's God or relativity theories.

 

Stoicism is something different again:  Wikipedia

 

"1)  the endurance of pain or hardship without the display of feelings and without complaint.

 

2) An ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain."

 

Yes, self sacrifice is an advocacy of a number of Christian and other religions.

 

 

[yasiel]

 

Thanks! Perfectly fine if it's pantheism or not a belief. 

 

Seem to recall that there's a bit more to Spinoza. Something like the word of God, the holy spirit, or creative force.   

 

Recently learned, there's also a bit more to stoicism. For centuries spanning Jesus' life and Spinoza's, it was a dominat perspective. 

 

IMO, Spinoza's ideas resonate with space-time, cause-and-effect, and free will, as well as stoicism and the Semitic religions' emphasis on acceptance of God's will.  

[pantheory]

50 minutes ago, yasiel said:

 

Thanks! Perfectly fine if it's pantheism or not a belief. 

 

Seem to recall that there's a bit more to Spinoza. Something like the word of God, the holy spirit, or creative force.   

 

Recently learned, there's also a bit more to stoicism. For centuries spanning Jesus' life and Spinoza's, it was a dominat perspective. 

 

IMO, Spinoza's ideas resonate with space-time, cause-and-effect, and free will, as well as stoicism and the Semitic religions' emphasis on acceptance of God's will.  

 

Yeah, there is more to Spinoza, But in Spinoza's time there was no such concept as space-time, but he probably addressed related philosophies and the other things you mentioned.