Spinoza talk by MFB delivered at UUSE Sunday 7/28/24.
Title “Spinoza’s God: Wisdom from the 1600’s”
I was struck dumb in the year 2023 when I heard for the first time: the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) planned a big change. The UUA leaders proposed that we drop all 7 of our Principles. There would be something new.
“No,” I said. “Don’t take our Principles.”
Our UU principles have taken at least 5 centuries to develop. Written and debated for years by Unitarian Universalists (UUs). The UUA General Assembly of 1985 adopted them.
In shock, I realized that the 7 Principles meant something deep to me. They spoke to my soul. But I could not articulate why. What was so important about the Principles?
I read the New Yorker magazine, and sometimes more than the cartoons. In February, I happened on a book review. The title of the review: The Reticent Radical, Baruch Spinoza’s quiet revolution. The book: Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah, a short biography in Yale University’s Press, written by Ian Buruma.
A quote from the review: Spinoza argues that the highest happiness of which human beings are capable is seeing the universe “under the aspect of eternity.”
He said Spinoza’s dedication to freedom of thought makes him a thinker for our moment.
And for my moment this past winter.
This is the Buruma book! (Show!)
I told people that
What disturbed me most about the proposed A2, and the removal from the UUA Constitution of the 7 Principles, was the appearance of thought control.
No one was going to tell me what I was going to think.
No one was going to take away my 7 Principles.
At the back of our Sunday Service program are the 7 Principles. Take a look with me. It begins: We covenant to affirm and promote: and then lists the 7. Clear and poetic.
I have been OK with the 7 Principles. They do NOT tell me what I must think or believe. Just that I join with the rest of Unitarian Universalists in affirming them. And I proudly promote them.
And since the UUA adopted them in 1985, I have done just that. I hand out the book mark with the 7 Principles on them – particularly when anyone asks me why I am a UU. (Show latest Bookmarks! Offer to give them out.) I am proud of them. I fully accept these principles as a guide to my own life. I try daily to live up to them, incorporate them in my actions. I even base my lawyer’s advice upon them.
And these 7 Principles do NOT tell me what to believe.
When I tell you that I use them in my legal practice, let me say:
I often represent people in hotly contested will contests. Angry people on both sides. I represent the people on one side of the contest. They despise the people on the other side. I urge my clients to:
Respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person involved – the other side, their attorney, the judge, any witnesses, themselves.
Work for Justice, equity, and compassion in this family conflict.
Conduct a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Know and deal with the real facts of the case. Not just what you want to believe.
We’re all in this together.
All the Principles apply to a winning case.
5. Peggy Webbe spoke about truths on Sunday July 7 here. One definition of truth is subjective and based on faith. All other religions but ours have such faith truths: Reincarnation, The Virgin birth, Jesus was God’s son on Earth, There is a heaven, There is a hell. There is a man-like God who watches over us, to whom we can pray, and who created all homo sapiens in God’s own image. And there are so many more such “truths”.
Peggy noted that these faith truths do not meet the scientific requirements for objective truths. Yet these faith truths have dominated world religions for millennia, have caused, and are continuing to cause, great death and destruction by their true believers.
Faith truths are powerful.
6. The critic in the review – Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah – wrote, “Intellectual freedom has once again become an important issue, even in countries, such as the United States, that pride themselves on being uniquely free.” Our First Amendment says we can think what we want and say what we think – a paraphrasing from Spinoza.
I was hooked after reading the review. Got the book. Got another for our Book Cart in the lobby – please borrow it. Let us know your thoughts. Got a lot more books from libraries. Got a lot off the internet. All since reading the February book review.
More about why Spinoza is now one of my heroes.
7. It helps us to know the hard world of Spinoza in order to appreciate his astounding insights. His Jewish family lived in Spain until Catholics took it over about 1492. Remember the Spanish Inquisition! They moved to Portugal, but the Spanish Inquisition followed them. The family had to convert to Catholicism or be burned at the stake. Their choice was to flee to a more tolerant place. Spinoza’s family took the name of a Spanish town, Espinoza, and fled to France. In 1615 the French expelled them and they moved again to the Netherlands. There the Spinoza family brought Baruch Spinoza into the World on November 4, 1632, nearly 400 years ago. The Netherlands were then the least intolerant land in Europe. Calvinists with their new dogma were in charge. But they also allowed people of other faiths to live there.
The Spinoza family prospered. The Jewish community thrived in the Netherlands despite not being allowed citizenship, and not bending much to the Calvinists. Jewish traditions could be followed. One was a focus on education. Baruch Spinoza was an apt student, but asked too many questions. His Talmud and Bible teachers thought him the most troublesome.
Spinoza thought, and said, the Bible stories were supernatural fiction by incompetent writers. Also, the supernatural does not exist, there is no immortal human soul, angels do not exist, there was no divine creation by a God. A God did not chose the Jewish people!
Christians were angry with Baruch and his friends.
The Jews were angry with him.
The rabbis and other Jewish leaders were concerned about staying on the good side of the powers that be. The rabbis tried to silence Baruch. They offered him money to be quiet. He refused it.
In 1655 a man with a knife attached Baruch. He blamed leaders of his synagogue.
The synagogue’s leaders ruled that Baruch Spinoza was a non-person, and no longer a Jew. They excommunicated him in 1656; age 23. No chance to repent. His family dropped him from their homes and business. He had no support.
He said this was all the better. He was now free.
He devoted the rest of his life to philosophy. He supported himself by grinding and polishing lenses for scientists using microscopes and telescopes.
(The glass dust ruined his lungs leading to his death February 21, 1677 at the age of 44.)
However, his thought poured from him until his death.
He signed his writings as Benedictus de Spinoza, and printed them in Latin. Friends printed in the local vernacular. They became targets. An angry mob seized two of his friends, and savagely killed them.
Baruch kept a low profile. He published in Latin. Often anonymously. The mass of people could not read him.
8. What are some of those thoughts of Benedictus de Spinoza from the 1600s that struck such a chord in me?
I read English translations of his major works – Tractatus and, posthumously, Ethics. Thick stuff. But I began to catch his style. Please look at the page available to you when we are done – on a table as you leave. It has some of his statements – those that struck me. Particularly those in which he explained his ideas of God.
How did the World of Europe react to Spinoza? He helped launch the Enlightenment Period (roughly 1685 – 1815).
Spinoza’s writings spread over Europe during the Enlightenment. However, they were often attacked. Even in the relatively tolerant Netherlands, the Tractatus was officially banned in 1674. His friends did not publish his Ethics until after he died in 1677. Yet his writings persisted. He was a most attacked thinker for centuries after. The critics are much less caustic today. Books keep coming out about Spinoza and his thoughts. My favorite now is this one. HOLD UP BOOK! Most readable.
The Enlightenment carried many of Spinoza’s conclusions, particularly those about freedom. The best policy in religious matters, he wrote, is “…allowing every man to think what he likes, and say what he thinks.” How much more UU can one get!
9. That last clear statement told me why I was reacting so well to Spinoza’s writings. When I first walked into a Unitarian Universalist fellowship meeting in Cheyenne Wyoming in 1965, I sensed that I could freely speak my mind. And people listened politely. And the people there also spoke their minds - freely. Respectfully!
It has been the same here at UUSE for the last 55 years. People here speak their minds freely and we listen. We are brave people. We face the mysteries of Life, the Universe, and Everything. We do not accept anyone’s subjective truths – Take it on Faith! Truths - no matter where they come from.
My deep dive into the writings of Spinoza pleased me. Yes, I am still suffering some unrest over the UUA removal of the 7 Principles. However, I breathe easier now. Spinoza has assured me I can keep thinking freely. In fact, he tells me that I cannot stop thinking freely.
My credo was stuck for years in the “agnostic” mode: I now welcome Spinoza’s definition of God. He writes in his Ethics:
By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite…eternal and infinite…Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.
As that thought seeps into my being, I cannot get too upset with whatever goes on at the UUA. Also, I cannot get too upset with whatever may change at this Society. So far, we have kept our Principles. The phrase “Life Goes On” has new meaning for me. That does not mean I will stop urging revisions in our UUSE Constitution that ease the apparent grip of the UUA on our minister and our assets. UUSE must remain an independent entity - affiliated with the UUA, but never subordinate. By remaining independent, free thought can flow. I can remain happy here.
My take on Spinoza?
I welcomed all that I read, and could understand, from his writings. His definition of God strikes a chord with me. Spinoza’s God is everything. Given his service to astronomers of his day, he grasped the concept of a universe extending far beyond Amsterdam. (Gallileo died 10 years after Spinoza’s birth.) His view of God allows Spinoza to be at ease wherever he found himself. I sense that if I keep on considering God in Spinoza’s way, I will be more at ease with myself. Everyone I meet has been created by this God. They are part of God. The laws of science and objective truths are immutable, even if we do not yet know a fraction of those truths. It is comforting to think that the unknown truths can someday be known. Think DNA!
As to us in this Meeting House, all one with God: I am more ready than ever to call you all friends, to listen to your thinking, and to freely share with you mine.
Some closing words to this talk, an echo from Spinoza, from our own Cyndi Krupa:
May peace, light, and love infuse all beings with a feeling of connection and the knowing we are one.
Delivered live with a fair amount of ad-libbing and expansion on points. Designed to take 20 minutes more or less. As delivered, took almost twice that time.
Additional Spinoza Quotes here
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