Students asked Albert Einstein if he believed in God. “I believe in the God of Spinoza,” he would always answer. Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.
According to Spinoza, God would say: “Stop praying. I want you to 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 that others 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, and best of all, free will. Why would I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How could 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 give what you don’t want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life—alertness is your guide.
“My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, not 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. It’s you who creates heaven or hell.
“Live as if there is nothing beyond this life, as if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. Then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is an afterlife, 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 with 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 parrot what you’ve been taught about me. Why do you need more miracles? So many explanations?
“The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.”
I would add what Jesus tried telling humanity when the Pharisees asked when the Kingdom of God would come, Luke 17:20-21 reads, “And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God cometh, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.”
This is why Jesus was crucified. He equated himself with God. Jesus dared to say that God lived within him AND WITHIN every person. THAT is why he was crucified. You will never find any word in the Bible nor anywhere else that Jesus called any person a sinner.
Bibles today are putting back the word “within” where they had changed it to “among” which erroneously changes the meaning of the words Jesus spoke. Even older bibles have a footnote after the word among, sending the reader to the bottom of the page which denotes that the original word and meaning is “within.”
The Kingdom of God is the Light of God preciously held within your Eternal Universal Life Force Energy pulsing through every part of your body, including your every breath.
You are not a sinner. You are a human being who makes mistakes as all of us do. When we give in to our lower animal instincts to misuse our human potential for selfish gain, we set up consequences and chain reactions. We reap what we sow.
I recommend using our gifts of free will, empathy, and compassion, along with kindness, fairness and justice. By justice I mean life-affirming justice, setting up plans that call for saving the most life in the situations which call for integrity and serving the greater good for humanity, and void of prejudice, malice, and hatred.
Our revolution is a revolution of LOVE, PEACE, UNDERSTANDING, KINDNESS.
NAMASTE ~ which means “The God in me recognizes the God in you.”