Spinoza's 364th Anniversary
Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677) On this day in 1656 at the age of 23, Baruch Spinoza, the Dutch-born son of Portuguese Jewish parents who would soon become a world-famous philosopher and a founder of the Enlightenment, was excommunicated from his synagogue in Amsterdam. It was the most tolerant city in the world, but obviously not tolerant enough. Spinoza did not object; he Latinized his name to Benedict. No specific reason was given for the harsh cherem , the excommunication decree; he was merely accused of unspecified "abominable heresies ... and ... monstrous deeds. He had not yet published his work showing that "God" is nothing more than eternal law-governed impersonal nature (which can neither hear nor answer prayers); that the immortal soul is a fiction; and that the Bible was not divinely inspired. He was, above all, a champion of reason, virtue, total freedom of conscience, and political freedom -- the first to call for separation of religion and state. Perhaps he ...