SPINOZA: YOU DON'T NEED A GOD TO DO GOOD

Baruch Spinoza, the 17th-century heretic philosopher excommunicated from Judaism for thinking too freely, didn’t believe in a personal God who judges us. He didn’t believe in heaven, hell, or miracles.

And yet, Spinoza believed in an absolute morality.

How? Because for Spinoza, God wasn’t some sky-bound accountant tracking sin. God was nature itself - Deus sive Natura. The universe wasn’t cold or indifferent; it was divine.

In this system, ethics isn’t imposed from above. It emerges from understanding. Spinoza argued that the more we comprehend our place in nature - our drives, our limitations, our interdependence - the more we live in accordance with reason, and the more virtuous we become.

Morality, for Spinoza, is not about obedience. It’s about alignment.

You don’t refrain from cruelty because a divine judge is watching. You refrain because cruelty fragments your essence, pits you against others, and sabotages your flourishing. Good is what enhances your power to exist and understand. Evil is what diminishes it.

This isn’t relativism. It’s rigor, grounded not in commandments but in metaphysics.

It’s not a loophole for libertines. It’s a call to integrity, one that doesn’t need a cosmic punisher to make it stick.

And here’s the kicker: Spinoza was arguably more atheist than most modern atheists. He denied any anthropomorphic God, rejected the soul’s immortality, and still arrived at a moral philosophy that’s as demanding as any religious system.

If that sounds like permission to “do whatever you want,” you haven’t understood Spinoza. Or atheism. Or, frankly, ethics.

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