I am a nerd 🙂 But I am fascinated with religion, not in a dogmatic way, and sometimes I write philosophical things. Baruch Spinoza wrote this text, and for some reason, I just learned about it today. It seems Einstein also used it as his own God definition.
God would have said:
Stop being praying and giving you blows in the chest. What I want you to do is to go out into the world to enjoy your life.
I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun, and enjoy everything I’ve done for you.
Stop going to those gloomy, dark, and cold temples that you built yourself and say to be my home.
My house is in the mountains, in the forests, the rivers, the lakes, and the beaches. That’s where I live and express all my love for you.
Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you you were a sinner.
Stop having me so scared. I do not judge you, nor criticize you, nor anger me, nor bother me, nor punishment. I am pure love.
Stop asking me for forgiveness, and there’s nothing to forgive. If I made you… I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies… of free will. How can I blame you if you answer something I put in you? How can I punish you for being as you are if I’m the one I made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who misbehave for the rest of eternity?
What kind of God can do that?
Forget about any kind of commandments, of any kind of laws; those are wiles to manipulate you, to control you, and that only create guilt in you.
Respect your peers, and don’t do what you don’t want for yourself. The only thing I ask is that you pay attention in your life and that your alert status is your guide. This life is the only thing there is, here and now, and the only thing you need.
I have made you absolutely free. There are no prizes or punishments, and there are no sins or virtues. No one carries a marker, and no one carries a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life a heaven or hell.
I couldn’t tell you if there’s anything after this life, but I can give you a tip. Live as if there wasn’t.
As if this was your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.
So, if there is nothing, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, be sure I will not ask you if you behaved well or wrong. I will ask you. Did you like it?… did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?…
Stop believing in me; to believe is to assume, guess, and imagine. I don’t want you to believe in me. I want you to feel in yourself when you kiss your beloved, when you throw your little girl, when you love your dog, when you bathe in the sea.
Stop praising me. What kind of egotistical God do you think I am?
I’m bored to praise me, and I’m fed up with thanking me. Do you feel grateful? Prove it was taking care of you, your health, your relationships, and the world. Do you feel looked, overwhelmed?… Express your joy! That’s the way to praise me.
The only thing sure is that you are here, alive, and this world is full of wonders.
What do you need more miracles for?
Why so many explanations?
Don’t look for me outside, and you won’t find me. Find me inside… there I’m beating in you.
Baruch Spinoza