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Full Idea
The single most important question that can be raised about Spinoza's philosophy is: Is his God really a God?
Gist of Idea
The key question for Spinoza is: is his God really a God?
Source
comment on Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675]) by Matthew Stewart - The Courtier and the Heretic Ch.13
Book Ref
Stewart,Matthew: 'The Courtier and the Heretic' [Yale 2007], p.224
A Reaction
Novalis called Spinoza a "God-intoxicated man", but this question shows why many of Spinoza's contemporaries (and later) considered him to be an atheist. The general modern answer by commentators to the question appears to be 'No!'.
| 8148 | Brahma, supreme god and protector of the universe, arose from the ocean of existence [Anon (Upan)] |
| 7343 | Beside me there is no God [Isaiah] |
| 7994 | Everything, including the gods, comes from me, says Krishna [Anon (Bhag)] |
| 22726 | When things were unified, Mind set them in order [Anaxagoras] |
| 2629 | Anaxagoras was the first to say that the universe is directed by an intelligence [Anaxagoras, by Cicero] |
| 6011 | There is a remote first god (the Good), and a second god who organises the material world [Numenius, by O'Meara] |
| 7835 | The key question for Spinoza is: is his God really a God? [Stewart,M on Spinoza] |
| 23031 | God is the ideal end of the mature mind's final development [Green,TH] |
| 4497 | The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life [Nietzsche] |