Galileo and Spinoza

Bright Stars in Modern Astronomy and Religion

They were born about 100 years apart, Galileo, the astronomer, in 16th Century Italy; Spinoza, the philosopher in 17th Century Holland. They had a number of things in common, and one important difference.

First, they were both new stars of knowledge in a dark and ignorant world. Secondly, both were victims of intolerant religious authorities about twenty years apart; Galileo punished by the Catholic Church, Spinoza punished by the Jewish Synagogue of Amsterdam.

Galileo’s crime (following Copernicus before him) had been to reject the established geocentric model of our Solar System (Diagram on the right, above: blue=Earth, red=Mars, yellow=Sun). Note the earth is in the center and stationary. The sun, as well as other planets, rotate around it. (Recall that in 1600, Giordano Bruno had been burned at the stake alive for stating that the earth revolves around the sun.)

Instead, based on their observations, Copernicus and Galileo insisted on the heliocentric model on the left. It has our sun as the stationary center, as we now know it to be. Earth, and the other planets, rotate around it. Earth also spins on its own axis to produce day and night. Galileo further held that the Bible should not be seen as a source of scientific knowledge.

So, the sun doesn’t really ‘rise’, nor does it ‘set’—- mere illusions caused by the daily spin on its axis by Mother Earth. Language usage is apparently immune to science.

Galileo was found guilty of ‘suspicion of heresy’ by the Vatican for holding this Copernican view which was deemed inconsistent with what is said in the Bible and Catholic religious dogma. He was placed under house arrest for life and forced to recant, which he did (plea bargain to avoid excommunication, I wonder?).

Spinoza’s crime was even more serious. He believed that he had, through philosophical inquiry, arrived at important truths about religion, human relations, and nature, which could lead men to greater happiness and emotional and physical well-being. This is what he called ‘true religion’. In effect, Spinoza was an early Pantheist. God, for him, is in all and in everything in the universe. ‘If a triangle could speak, it would say ….that God is eminently triangular, and a circle, …. that the divine nature is eminently circular. Thus, it is small wonder that he was called an ‘Atheist’ by some, and a ‘God-intoxicated man’ by others.

Spinoza was too liberal and modern in his views in the 1600's, and he unfortunately remains too modern for many people today, in 2015.

Spinoza rejects:

the existence of the traditional Jewish God of Abraham (that Christians call God the Father, and Muslims, Allah),

that Jewish law and observances have any relevance for modern-day (i.e., mid-1600's) people,

the concept of an immortal soul.

And he insists that:

the Bible is not literally of divine origin, but written by men and handed down haphazardly through the ages,

there is no moral or theological manner in which Jews are different from any other people.

Spinoza was excommunicated by his Jewish congregation and Rabbi in 1656 for ‘abominable heresies and monstrous deeds’ (without further details.) ‘We expel, curse, and damn you’, he was told.

PS:

The stark difference in the two men’s stories is that in 1992 (about 350 years after the fact) the Catholic Church, after thorough study, admitted that Galileo had been right and the church wrong in punishing him.

But the synagogue in Amsterdam has never reversed the excommunication of Spinoza, though several attempt have been made, one very recently in 2012. The facts are that Spinoza’s spoken and written thoughts were (in 1656), and still are (in the 21st Century) inimical to some central concepts of Judaism. Though it surely would have been good PR to nullify the ban. But, it could not, and perhaps should not be done in the present or future. Some central concepts of Judaism are unlikely to change, as are the central beliefs of all traditional religions.

Spinoza lived for 21 years after his excommunication. He made new friends among people in Christian fringe groups, wrote several important books, and died in 1677. He is buried in the churchyard of the Christian ‘New Church’ in The Hague, Holland .

(Note: Useful references for Spinoza were: Lewis Browne, ‘Blessed Spinoza, a Biography’, 1932, and an essay in The Stone, NY Times by Steven Nadler, ‘Judging Spinoza’, May 2014. For Galileo, I used mainly Wikipedia.)