When Einstein taught at many universities in the United States, the recurring question that students asked him was always the same:
“Do you believe in God?”
Einstein always gave the same answer:
“I believe in the God of Spinoza.“
For those who know nothing about it, it may not mean anything, their thoughts and their vision always remain the same …
Baruch Spinoza was an important philosopher who lived during the seventeenth century, therefore
in full rationalism: his philosophy is therefore very much based on logic, so much so as to identify God as the geometric order of the world , which manifests itself in the perfection of Nature.
His thought can therefore be condensed into one of his most famous expressions, Deus sive natura: God or Nature .
There are those who claim that Spinoza’s God can pronounce these words:
“Stop praying and beating yourself on the chest.
Have fun, love, sing and enjoy all that this world can give you.
I don’t want you to visit the cold and dark temples that you say are my home!
My home is not in a temple, but in the mountains, forests, rivers, lakes and beaches. That’s where my home is and that’s where I express my love.
Don’t be fooled by written texts about me: if you want to get close Look at me at a beautiful landscape, try to feel the wind and the heat on your skin.
Don’t ask me anything, I don’t have the power to change your life, you do.
Don’t be afraid, I don’t judge and I don’t criticize, I don’t dispense punishments.
Do not believe those who simplify me in simple rules to respect: those only serve to make you feel inadequate and guilty for what you do, they serve to keep you under control.
Do not always think about the world after death and do not believe that it is there that you will know true beauty: this world has to offer you so much of that beauty, and it is only up to you to discover it.
Do not think that I set you rules: you are the only owner of life, and you decide what to do with them.
No one can tell what is after death, but facing each day as if it were the last chance to love, rejoice and do whatever it takes will help you live better.
I don’t want you to believe in me because someone strongly claims that I exist, but I want you to always feel me in you and around you. “
It is possible to imagine that Spinoza’s thought was not well received at the time, but perhaps it is not today: the God that Spinoza preaches is a God of freedom , detached from the human actions of forgiveness and punishment. Spinoza was one of the philosophers who brought life back into the hands of the person who lives it.
Einstein fully embraced the geometric and natural view of God. A concept that can make us reflect on what religion is for us and can broaden our views.
