ILN EP 50: Baruch Spinoza

Pat was feeling cosmic, so Ben turns him onto the pantheistic philosophy of 17th Century Rationalist Baruch Spinoza. Harbinger of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, this Portuguese Dutch Jew developed a system of thought so at odds with the Jewish thought of the time that he ended up getting excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community, giving them a feisty middle finger on the way out. Basically, Baruch AKA Barry AKA Benedictus AKA Bento Spinoza cast doubt on the notion of God being a personal agent with intention, a huge no-no among the Jews cast out from Spain and Portugal at the time. Instead he equated God with Nature, implying that all existence unfolds as an inevitable process and that we're all simply manifestations of God itself. Note the "it", not the "He". God has no personhood, agency, or intention, and is therefore no different than a cosmic, natural force. The cause of it all. In the meantime, the WisdomBois learn that littering is hilarious, Pat's family is anti-semitic, and that giraffes are kosher. Fuck yeah.