Just came across an interesting looking book that I’m excited to read. Its called The Evolution of God by Robert Wright.

The NY Times review is positive, and I’m always interested in reading about the history of God, belief, and religion. The description looks pretty cool, so hopefully it’ll live up to expectations.

Here’s the book description.

Here’s the NY Times review.

Just came across this quote today, and it made me pause. It made me take a moment to digest its elegance and simplicity. Take a few minutes and really stop to think about it. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong… just enjoy it.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”

- Carl Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology.

My favorite pantheistic philosopher, Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza is a giant who Bertrand Russell described as “the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers.” His concepts are easy to understand, his writing is not. Definitely a fun (if challenging) read.

He was among the first to do scholarly literary criticism of the Bible, and did a lot to popularize the pantheistic view that everything is God. His principle argument for a pantheistic view was that if God is a perfect, infinite being, then for anything to NOT be part of God would mean that God had limitations and was not infinite. Nothing CAN be separate from God as that would imply a limitation of God. Interesting POV.

From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

His thought combines a commitment to Cartesian metaphysical and epistemological principles with elements from ancient Stoicism and medieval Jewish rationalism into a nonetheless highly original system. His extremely naturalistic views on God, the world, the human being and knowledge serve to ground a moral philosophy centered on the control of the passions leading to virtue and happiness. They also lay the foundations for a strongly democratic political thought and a deep critique of the pretensions of Scripture and sectarian religion. Of all the philosophers of the seventeenth century, perhaps none have more relevance today than Spinoza.