Atheists And Spinoza And Isaiah Berlin
Many modern atheists are really pantheists. If you listen carefully, you will often hear, “I go out, look at the lake. That’s all I need. I am filled with awe.” Where the awe came from is an unanswered question…
The philosopher who magnetically attracts many contemporary atheists is Spinoza. Spinoza felt Nature was Immanent. Inhabited by the spiritual.
Wiki says,
Martial Guéroult suggested the term “Panentheism”, rather than “Pantheism” to describe Spinoza’s view of the relation between God and the world. The world is not God, but it is, in a strong sense, “in” God. Not only do finite things have God as their cause; they cannot be conceived without God.
It seems a comfy fit: Spinoza and atheism. But listen to Isaiah Berlin about Spinoza,
Spinoza has no sense of change and evolution. He has no sense of history. Spinoza thinks that correct solutions to all questions could have been thought of at any time, but unfortunately weren’t,.. Spinoza preaches a kind of timeless rationalism in a void. He thinks that any idea could have been born at any time. Who in the world has believed this after Hegel?
Conversations With Isaiah Berlin, “The Birth of Modern Politics”
