Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
1–10 of 376 posts
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#2Personally, I hold the panentheistic ("all in God") view. It's very similar to pantheism; the distinction is that pantheism would say Universe=God, and panentheism would say Universe⊂God.
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#3Every moment of our existence brings about a certain amount of suffering, and a certain amount of joy.
Depending on our choices and intentions, the amounts of joy and suffering for both us and other viewpoints varies.
I believe that Universe is continuously solving for the maximum sum amount of joy from all the viewpoints combined.
Of course, a certain amount of suffering is required to bring about the joy, whether by providing a comparison, or by carving our abilities and motivations.
When I set my intentions for maximum joy and follow through on them, the Universe "likes" and "assists" this in amazing and miraculous ways, which bring about even more joy, and so on.
We are truly fortunate to exist in a Universe which is set up this way.
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#4I am extremely scientific and I believe in god. Not quite Spinoza's, more of a pantheistic view.
If you think about it, the universe is conscious, because our conscious minds are part of it. And it's learning about itself.
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#5I am extremely scientific and I believe in god. Not quite Spinoza's, more of a pantheistic view. If you think about it, the universe is conscious, because our conscious minds are part of it. And it's learning about itself.
that would also make it violently and severely dissociative with the number of competing consciousnesses.
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#6I am extremely scientific and I believe in god. Not quite Spinoza's, more of a pantheistic view. If you think about it, the universe is conscious, because our conscious minds are part of it. And it's learning about itself.
I don't believe in any particular god but I do think that the universe and our experience is ultimately unexplainable. So science can never have these answers therefore I am open to theistic arguments but ultimately even these arguments are unsatisfying because it just moves the level of unexplainability up one more level... who created god?
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#7I am extremely scientific and I believe in god. Not quite Spinoza's, more of a pantheistic view. If you think about it, the universe is conscious, because our conscious minds are part of it. And it's learning about itself.
> If you think about it, the universe is conscious, because our conscious minds are part of it
This seems like quite a leap. Parts of the earth are conscious, so is the earth conscious? Parts of the universe are alive, so is the universe alive? Every member of my family is conscious*, but I wouldn't say that "my family" is conscious.
*Solipsism notwithstanding
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#8I am extremely scientific and I believe in god. Not quite Spinoza's, more of a pantheistic view. If you think about it, the universe is conscious, because our conscious minds are part of it. And it's learning about itself.
> If you think about it, the universe is conscious, because our conscious minds are part of it
Hell of a leap. I subscribe to the notion the consciousness is a illusion via chemical whatever and the universe doesn't give a damn anyway.
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#9>For one thing, it manages to create a profound metaphysical intimacy with God without denying His transcendence.
this kind of thinking which I often see when people express pantheistic views is exactly what turns me away from it. It's just as much of an anthropomorphization as the article accuses traditional conceptions of God of.
I guess you can think that the universe is in some vague sense conscious, although I don't think the arguments for that are great either, but to jump from this to thinking one can experience 'intimacy' with it (and explicitly not "him") is I think already making mistakes. One can experience intimacy while being in nature but not 'with nature', Intimacy is a human emotion, 'nature' does not empathize back.
To me pantheism just seems like a misapplied psychological need. People have a (understandable) revulsion against seeing the universe as mechanic, or random, or 'cold' or what have you, and pantheism not unlike Gaia type theories are comforting.
Re: Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?
#10[deleted]