Understanding God of Spinoza and Einstein: Video by Novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

Presented by Zia H Shah MD Rebecca Newberger Goldstein explains God of Spinoza and how he was blamed to be an atheist. In my opinion he and Einstein can be best understood as pantheist. They believe in God the Creator but only a Pantheist one. This is the God that Richard Dawkins suggests that he…

June 20, 2024

2–4 minutes

christianity, faith, god, pantheism, religion

Presented by Zia H Shah MD

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein explains God of Spinoza and how he was blamed to be an atheist. In my opinion he and Einstein can be best understood as pantheist. They believe in God the Creator but only a Pantheist one.

This is the God that Richard Dawkins suggests that he could respect in his book God Delusion.

Many pantheists do not believe in Personal God and that is certainly true of Einstein. Paul Davies may also be more of a Pantheist rather than an agnostic. I certainly do not want to force my labels on anyone. I am just suggesting to improve understanding if the readers were to read or hear hundreds of videos out there of Paul Davies.

This clarification gives us better concepts and it may also explain theology of many reformed Jews even possibly Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Pantheism is the philosophy that everything is God (pan=everything, theos=God) or that the universe and nature are divine. The Quran obviously repeatedly denies this idea and presents God to be beyond time, space and matter.

Sometimes the Muslim scholars equate pantheism with polytheism or atheism. Pantheism should not be equated with atheism, rather recognized on its own merit. Atheists deny any purpose in universe while pantheist do not. One can consider pantheism on a spectrum from theism towards atheism.

Additionally, the distinction between a pantheist and a deist may not be always so clear or black and white. We, those who not only believe in a Creator God but also a Personal God, can sometimes borrow arguments and understanding from pantheists, especially their explanation of the comprehensibility of the universe, as long as we understand their different nuances and their metaphysics and theology.