The God of Spinoza

Did you know that when Einstein gave lectures at the numerous US universities he was invited to, the recurring question that students asked him was:

Do you believe in God?
And he always answered:
I believe in the God of Spinoza.

The ones who hadn't read Spinoza didn't understand...

Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the three great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, along with René Descartes in France, and Gottfried Leibniz in Germany.

Here's some of his wisdom:
God would have said:

Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest!

What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.

Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house! My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.

Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing!

Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. 

So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.

Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes... you will find me in no book! 

Trust me and stop asking me. 

Would you tell me how to do my job?

Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or seek to punish you. I am pure love.

Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. 

If I made you... I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will. 

How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? 

How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? 

Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? 

What kind of God would do that?

Forget any kind of commandments, any kind of laws; those are wiles to manipulate you, to control you, that only create guilt in you.

Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that your consciousness is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing that exists here and now, and it is all you need.

I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues... no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.

You are absolutely free to create in your life heaven or hell.

I could tell you if there's anything after this life, but I won't... but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is nothing after... as if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?...

Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me... 

I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.

Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?

I'm bored being praised, I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? 

Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy!... that's the way to praise me.

Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.

The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, and that this world is full of wonders.

What do you need more miracles for? Why so many explanations?

Look for me outside... you won't find me. Find me inside... there I am beating within you.

Spinoza.

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Hot Tub Revelations

Tonight, I decided to spend some time in my hot tub after it got dark and sitting in the warm 101 degree temperature water and after turning on the jets, looked up at the stars in the sky...  and noticed that there really wasn't many of them that I could see.

The black sky above my head was loaded with millions perhaps billions of stars even though I could only see  less than 00.00000001% of 99.9999999% of them around our planet earth which is located in our solar system...  and, to expand your mental horizons imagine millions/billions of solar systems in our galaxy and millions/billions of galaxies in our quadrant of our universe.

Now, let's imagine our universe is a dinner plate and our quadrant in this universe represents 1 degree of the 360 degrees that completes the full circle of the universe.  Of course, it is also possible that our quadrant is not 1 degree but 1/10 or 1/100 or 1/1,000 or 1/10,000 of 1 degree.

In short, our universe is incredible vast and in each quadrant there are literally billions of billions of billions of solar systems and galaxies...  so, you can just imagine how many stars there are.

AND, as I look at these stars, I begin to wonder:

1. why am I here?
2. what's my purpose here?

BUT, before we answer those two questions, one must come to terms with the creation of the universe...

• was it created by the BIG BANG?
• was it created by CREATION?

Interestingly, NEITHER BELIEF CAN BE PROVED ABSOLUTELY...  one must have elements of faith that support their belief(s).

If God created the universe...  the big question here is WHY?

And, why did God create Jesus to die for our SINS when it was GOD who gave us those sins in the first place?

The BIG BANG direction does not take us any closer to the truth because we still have to answer the questions:

1. how?
2. why?
3. where did the stuff that created the BIG BANG come from?

BUT...  and more importantly...  why am I thinking about this in the Hot Tub when the whole purpose of the hot tub is to RELAX and not think of anything?

One thing is for sure, mankind on earth relative to the size of the universe is literally INSIGNIFICANT to say the least.  Does belief and faith make mankind on earth more SIGNIFICANT, especially when a member of mankind DIES?

My big question is this:  Does each SOLAR SYSTEM have a God and a HEAVEN?

Dividing My Life

I can divide my life into 5 unequal (in terms of years) segments:

First --  is my life before high school  (0-14)

Second --  is my life in high school (15-18)

Third --  is my life in college, the military, and back in college (19-25)

Fourth --  is my professional career (26-67)

Fifth --  is my ongoing retired life (68-current age)

Throughout my entire life (up to and including right now) my faith has been with me, not as some sort of flashing beacon illuminating the way, but as if it were a coin or good luck charm in my pocket.  For many reasons, I do not believe in institutionalized religion nor do I think that the various Christian Denominations ARE A GOOD THING, especially since if you do not believe like they do, then you ARE ABSOLUTELY WRONG.

This is not how faith was supposed to be experience...  at least this is my opinion.

A lot of people say that they live their faith but if you were to put a microscope to that statement, one would see that this is not true at all.

I live my faith but not in my witnessing and not in my going to Church and not in my Bible Readings and not in my prayers...   BUT, in my realization that,
first - my life is a gift from God
second - whoever or whatever that I am or have become is God's Will

In short, I acknowledge God as MY CREATOR and I accept that GOD'S WILL is being done here on earth regardless of whether or not we like the outcomes.

I don't pray for forgiveness
I don't pray for my good health or others
I don't pray for an end to violence
I don't pray that the US military win wars
I don't pray that I will be successful
I don't pray that I will be happy





WHAT I PRAY FOR AND ACKNOWLEDGE IS THAT GOD'S WILL BE DONE HERE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN...  wherever heaven might be....

I do this because in the Bible Jesus told us to use THE LORD'S PRAYER when praying to his father...   it is just that simple...  and, to me, very few people have followed that advice...   and, you would not believe how long some of the prayers I have listened to are...

I have no idea if I am correct in this analysis, but it is my analysis nonetheless.

Palm Sunday

What is Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–9), when palm branches were placed in his path, before his arrest on Holy Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday. It thus marks the beginning of Holy Week, the final week of Lent.

So, this is a religious event...

A religious event for those who believe but not so much for those who do not believe...

What is belief?

Belief is an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.

Simply stated, belief refers to the notion that God exists and that not only did HE create the Universe but that HE created mankind and after HE created mankind HE appeared on earth through the body of Jesus and then allowed HIMSELF to be crucified on a cross to die for the sins of mankind.

The GOD Trinity:  Father...  Son...  Holy Ghost...

These three are one in the same.

The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God can be categorized as metaphysical, logical, empirical, or subjective. Wikipedia