Analysing Spinoza's Conundrum: If the Topic of God Arises, Religion Cannot Be Far Behind
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
14 December
2022
We Do Not Question The Scriptures. Who Wrote
Them? What Special Qualifications Did They Have To Contend That They Were The
Chosen Instruments Of God? Who Has Validated Their Assumptions?
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What's
incomprehensible today, does not mean that it shall continue to remain
unexplained even after thousands of years. Human intelligence is never stuck at
one point like a needle of the clock that has stopped working, though there's
little doubt that in the realm of religion and god, the evolution of
intelligence and insights often hits a cul de sac.
Benedict
Spinoza's god, translated from Dutch by Edmund Elter
Let's
assess and analyse this famous quote, often termed as Spinoza's conundrum.
Going back into history or mythology, the Greeks believed that Zeus lived on
Mount Olympus. Then one day Man climbed Mount Olympus. So, god could not
possibly dwell where Man could reach. So, he moved further away. The Egyptians
believed that their god Ra lived in the sun; then Man realized that our sun was
just a minor star, and god gradually retreated beyond boundaries that could be
physically defined.
We humans
actually are so full of ourselves and have an in-born desire to know everything
and to control everything. We are loath to admit that there are certain things
we cannot explain, so we ascribe them to god. A study of human history would
reveal that over the centuries, as our knowledge of the physical laws that
govern the Universe has increased, we have attributed less and less to god as
there has been less that we cannot explain. But one thing that we are not able
to accept is that once we die it is kaput, the end, there is no afterlife and
no re-birth. This is where god comes in very handy and all that goes with him;
heaven, hell, judgment day, retribution etc in other words- perpetuation of our
existence even after death. The earth is the third rock from the sun, an
insignificant star, on the fringes of an ordinary galaxy among billions of others
and we would like to believe that the humans that inhabit our planet are
special!
Whenever
the topic of god arises, then religion cannot be far behind. Has it ever
occurred to any of us that whereas we humans have consistently updated our
understanding of all that happens on our planet, validated them through
scientific investigation and discovery, we still continue to blindly accept the
veracity of religious scriptures written more than two thousand years ago. Not
just that , we have also delegated interpretation of these scriptures to
pundits and clerics who want to control how we live our lives, based on what
someone put down in writing centuries earlier. We do not question the
scriptures. Who wrote them? What special qualifications did they have to contend
that they were the chosen instruments of god? Who has validated their
assumptions? Today, human knowledge is expanding so quickly, that even school
textbooks become outdated in a decade and have to be revised/re-written. But
our scriptures - nobody dares to question them. Isn't there a disconnect here?
Human civilization has progressed because of the inquiring nature of the human
mind, our ability to experiment, to consistently search for an easier and more
efficient way of doing things. But when it comes to religion, our minds
literally stop functioning; we refuse to even consider questioning its
postulates. Why? Is it because we are afraid of divine wrath, or is it the fear
of ostracism by the community? A study of history will show that maximum wars have
been fought and the most innocent human lives have been lost because of
religion, different gods, different faiths, and different perceptions. Is this
not strange (if not foolish) considering that there is still no
incontrovertible evidence that god exists!
As an
aside, till now, except for Buddhism, which is an atheistic religion, all other
faiths (including the atheistic Jainism) believe in hell and heaven. The reason
being, all scriptures aver that hell and heaven do exist. But does this
outlandish belief gel with the innate nous all humans are endowed with? It's
time to pitchfork this innate intelligence and come to the conclusion that the
imaginary hell and heaven are mere mental states and have no physical
existence.
Agreed,
even an atheist has his/her limitations in perceiving and comprehending a
number of phenomena just like a believer is full of silly and stubborn
self-assurance. Therefore, human intelligence needs to evolve constantly till
it gets all the answers. There mustn't be any let up until this profound
mission reaches its logical end.
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A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/spinoza-conundrum-god-religion/d/128624
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