Seeking origin of quote that's attributed to Spinoza

October 15, 2020 11:19 AM

A Facebook post has been making the rounds lately, and I'm trying to determine the actual origin of a quote that's being attributed to Baruch Spinoza.

I've copied the Facebook post below. I'm assuming that Spinoza is not the true author of the quote, but my Google-fu is failing me. I'd like to know who actually wrote this. And it would also be interesting to know whether there is any truth to the story that Einstein would cite this quote, or something like it, when answering questions about his religious views.

When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the recurring question that students asked him most was:

"Do you believe in God?"

And he always answered:

"I believe in the God of Spinoza."

Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.

(Spinoza) : God would say:

Stop praying.

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

Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying 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!

Stop asking me "will 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 bothered. 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?

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 alertness is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing 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 can't tell you if there's anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is not. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing after, 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 believe in you. 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.

What do you need more miracles for? So many explanations?

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

- Spinoza

posted by akk2014 to Religion & Philosophy (8 answers total)

This doesn't read anything like anything written in the 17th century.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:53 AM on October 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: It seems to come from this blog post.
posted by Obscure Reference at 11:57 AM on October 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

Seems like a garbled and glurged-up variation of this:

Dorion Sagan, son of famous scientist and science communicator Carl Sagan, published the 2007 book Dazzle Gradually: Reflections on the Nature of Nature, co-written with his mother Lynn Margulis. In the chapter "Truth of My Father", Sagan writes that his "father believed in the God of Spinoza and Einstein, God not behind nature, but as nature, equivalent to it." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism
posted by ook at 12:08 PM on October 15, 2020

About Einstein, see this Scientific American article:

The crucial point to recognize is Einstein does not refer here to God as a cosmic designer. Rather, he expresses his lifelong disbelief in a personal god—one that controls the lives of individuals. In 1929 Rabbi Herbert Goldstein sent him a telegram asking “Do you believe in God?” In response Einstein made an even clearer distinction between the awe humans feel when faced with the vastness, complexity and harmony of nature, and the belief in a god that monitors ethical behavior and punishes the wicked. He admired the Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and wrote: “I believe in Spinoza’s god, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a god who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

That Facebook text speaks in the voice of a God who has a personality and is into building personal relationships with individuals. Which is very distant from Spinoza's conception of God, even if some of the conclusions might overlap.
posted by trig at 12:08 PM on October 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

I was literally trying to find this same thing this week! I came to the conclusion as others above: that it was someone's copypasta trying to personify Spinoza's God but not really nailing it.
posted by Colonel_Chappy at 4:05 PM on October 15, 2020

Well, this got me intrigued and I did exhaustive searches in Google and the Internet Archive for various portions of the above long quotation. I could not find any clear citations (other than "Spinoza").

Closest I came was "Einstein and Religion: physics and theology" by Max Jammer. I have no idea if that will help, but I have requested that my County library mail me a copy on loan. I will reply to this thread if I find anything helpful (which I realize is unlikely).
posted by forthright at 5:26 PM on October 15, 2020

It might be worth submitting it to the Quote Investigator.
posted by Lexica at 9:06 AM on October 16, 2020

Well, after my previous answer I noticed that the link posted by Obscure Reference was accepted as the answer. So I (belatedly) reviewed the blog post by (apparently) Sanjay Thampy states that Benedict de Spinoza in his 1667 work "The Ethics" puts forward a proof that God exists and advances propositions about God's attributes and nature. Then under a heading "My Substance of God" the blog's author appears to launch from his discussion of Spinoza's book into his own take on God's attributes and nature. It's not clear (to me at least) whether this is a paraphrase or summary of Spinoza's work, or just something within the same arena.

I did find a (PDF) with R. H. M. Elwes translation from the Latin of Spinoza's "The Ethics" and I believe the proofs and propositions mentioned in the blog begin in Part I, Proposition XI, etc. It is very formal and dry logic and I am no philosopher, but it certainly is thorough in its analysis. I will leave it to other's who may be interested to decide how close the OP's quote is to the thrust of Spinoza's conclusions. And, as I said, it's not clear the blog post was really meant to do that anyway.

This was mainly for the aid of any future visitors to this thread.
posted by forthright at 10:40 AM on October 16, 2020 [2 favorites]