To All God's Children,
-->Read the old testament if you can find a place that promises immortality or eternal life come tell me. It’s just the New Testament apparently according to Spinoza. It’s such a tease living in existence as such conscious matter that we are aware of ourselves and our wants and desires. Nature is mocking us because it has provided us with such a profound understanding of life, and yet given us no way to sustain our own life forever to enjoy it. The fact that we are aware of our deaths as so many other creatures with “living monads” is the most frightening reality one can face. And we have to face it alone.
The more I think about people the more I wonder if we are in fact soulless. Essentially, if we don’t have souls then we are living, breathing matter that slowly deteriorates and ceases functioning until we break down and become other pieces of matter; in other words, the circle of life. Like in “The Lion King” the antelopes eat the grass, the lions eat the antelope and both the lions and antelope become fertilizer for the growth of new grass. Where does the soul come into play in that eternal circle? Someone with Alzheimer’s if they lose their personality, they lose it because parts of their being is destroyed. If the body were just a shell and the soul resided within, any damage to the body itself would not affect the capability of the soul. Then again you could argue that the spirit lives within the body on a different realm or dimension – but it’s impossible to test with out current scientific instruments. That is things that aren’t considered pseudo-science.
Nothing that isn’t meant to exist will be. Humans were meant to live in just the way we are. No matter what anyone says people are apart of nature. There’s no distinction between “natural” and “manmade”. Just because humans have touched the matter to mold it into something else, doesn’t mean that it is any less a part of nature. We’re all nature in motion with abilities to perceive and manipulate it better than any other life form – at least on this planet. Think about it clairvoyants may not be real, but a physicist is. Compared to the talents of, for example, medieval alchemist, a modern day physicist might as well be a magician.
Showing posts with label eternal life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eternal life. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Spinoza’s Monism
To All God's Children,
I believe this quote can say many things about human nature. In my interpretation, I would say that if “intellect” is free then one’s “will” is equally as free because to have a strong understanding pure of tainted knowledge is to set yourself free to control your fate (a.k.a. free will).
When I first learned about the philosophies of Spinoza, my entire perspective of the world changed. Spinoza is a material monist and in a sense this means that many things within the physical and metaphysical worlds. Things that seem separate are in fact the same such as the example above with will and intellect which to the naïve may seem completely different. Back in the days of Spinoza, the Jewish rabbis believed strongly in a separation between the secular and the sacred. Spinoza said no; there is no separation.
In doing so, he was excommunicated for his many other philosophies such as eternal life is not mentioned in the Old Testament. I think, his books were banned at the time, but they offered him many jobs at universities befitting a scholar. He would not accept them because he didn’t want them to limit what he was allowed to write and think about. He worked a low class job that eventually led to his death, but his story is admirable because not many people would be willing to abandon a better life for the pursuit of knowledge.
For this, he is one of my favorite historical persons. Without him, people would have taken longer to stop believing that demons possessed the minds of the mentally ill. Instead, we know that it’s something within the person because they are one with their brain and thus their disorder. Thank you, Spinoza.
“Will and intellect are one and the same thing” ~ Baruch Spinoza.
I believe this quote can say many things about human nature. In my interpretation, I would say that if “intellect” is free then one’s “will” is equally as free because to have a strong understanding pure of tainted knowledge is to set yourself free to control your fate (a.k.a. free will).
When I first learned about the philosophies of Spinoza, my entire perspective of the world changed. Spinoza is a material monist and in a sense this means that many things within the physical and metaphysical worlds. Things that seem separate are in fact the same such as the example above with will and intellect which to the naïve may seem completely different. Back in the days of Spinoza, the Jewish rabbis believed strongly in a separation between the secular and the sacred. Spinoza said no; there is no separation.
In doing so, he was excommunicated for his many other philosophies such as eternal life is not mentioned in the Old Testament. I think, his books were banned at the time, but they offered him many jobs at universities befitting a scholar. He would not accept them because he didn’t want them to limit what he was allowed to write and think about. He worked a low class job that eventually led to his death, but his story is admirable because not many people would be willing to abandon a better life for the pursuit of knowledge.
For this, he is one of my favorite historical persons. Without him, people would have taken longer to stop believing that demons possessed the minds of the mentally ill. Instead, we know that it’s something within the person because they are one with their brain and thus their disorder. Thank you, Spinoza.
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