God is all, and all is in God.

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

'He denied that the Bible was inspired by God down to the last letter. When we read the Bible, he said, we must continually bear in mind the period it was written in. A "critical" reading revealed a number of inconsistencies in the texts. But beneath the surface of the Scriptures in the New testament is Jesus, who we could well be called God's mouthpiece. Jesus preached a "religion of reason" which valued love higher than all else. Spinoza interpreted this as meaning both love of God and love of humanity. Nevertheless, Christianity had also become set in its own rigid dogmas and outer rituals.

***

'Are you saying that I cannot decide for myself?'
'Yes and no. You may have the right to move your thumb any way you choose. But your thumb can only move according to its' nature. It cannot jump off your hand and dance about the room. In the same way you also have your place in the structure of existence, you are also a finger of God's body.'
'So God decides everything I do?'
'Or nature, or laws of nature. Spinoza believed that God - or the laws of nature - is the inner cause of everything that happens. He is not an outer cause, since God speaks through the laws of nature and only through them.'

***

'God is not a puppeteer who pulls all the strings, controlling everything that happens. A real puppet master controls the puppets from outside and is therefore the "outer cause" of the puppetts movements. But that is not the way God controls the world. God controls the world through natural laws. So God- or nature- is the "inner cause" of everything that happens.'


- excerpts from Sophie's World