Analysis Of Spinoza's Argument Regarding The Existence Of God

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Distinctions among past and present philosophers regarding the existence of God, as well as how God is viewed, has provided us with numerous thought processes that allow us to trigger theories of our own. René Descartes and Baruch (or Benedict) Spinoza are two modern philosophers that have views of God that conflict with one another. This paper will examine the distinction between Descartes and Spinoza’s idea of God as an infinite substance. Additionally, I will analyze Spinoza’s argument regarding God and Nature, where he states them as being identical. Finally, I will determine whether Spinoza’s critics were correct in labelling him an atheist due to his argument on the uniformity of God and Nature.
René Descartes I will discuss …show more content…

In my opinion, Spinoza’s conceptualization of God does make him an atheist, more specifically a naturalistic pantheist. A distinction that can be found between Spinoza’s God and that of religions’ God is that Spinoza’s God is largely materialistic. God or nature for Spinoza revolves around matter, and it is the laws of nature that make matter assemble or disassemble. Therefore, Spinoza’s God lacks the characteristics of religions’ God that are required for the exercise of providence. More specifically, since God is Nature, Spinoza’s God lacks all characteristics of God that are discussed on philosophy – will, justice, good, evil, wisdom There is no supernatural, the only thing there is, is Nature, of which God is identical. It is for this reason that I conclude that Spinoza is not an atheist, but rather a naturalistic pantheist. The only difference I find between an atheist and Spinoza, is that he uses the word God. An atheist may say that the universe is the universe. Spinoza will say that the universe is the universe, and so is God. The only difference between the two is that Spinoza uses a different term. The important thing to note here is that Spinoza’s God is confined to his laws of nature, which cannot be broken to serve his own purposes. In other words, there lies no distinction between an atheist, and Spinoza, except that an atheist does not bother to call the universe a God, but rather just a

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