Thank you so much! The highlight for me was right at the beginning: 02:87 “The Bible... is not literally authored by God. The text was not composed or dictated by some transcendent, providential deity endowed with the psychological and moral characteristics required for the kind of providential agency attributed to the Abrahamic God… Scripture is not a book God has sent men from heaven. Rather, scripture is a very ordinary, mundane document - texts from a number of authors of various socio-economic backgrounds, writing at different points of time over a long stretch of history and in different historical and political circumstances. These texts were passed down through generations, in copies after copies after copies. Finally, a selection of these writings made with some contingency in arbitrariness, a selection was put together in the Second Temple period, most likely under the editorship of Ezra who was able only partially to synthesize his sources and create a single work of out of them. Subsequently, this imperfectly composed collection was itself subjected to the various changes that naturally creep in when a text is transmitted over many centuries. The Bible, then, is thus a work of human literature and… a rather faulty, mutilated, corrupted and inconsistent one, at that. It is a mixed breed by its birth and corrupted by its descent and preservation. It is a jumble of texts by different hands, from different periods and for different audiences. Spinoza supplements his theory of the origins of Scripture with an equally deflationary account of its authors. The prophets were not especially learning individuals. They did not enjoy a high degree of education or intellectual sophistication. They certainly were not philosophers or scientists. The biblical texts are for the most part not to be read as sources of truth. The Bible's authors… were not physicists or astronomers. So there are no truths about nature or the cosmos to be found in their writings. But neither is the Bible the source of metaphysical or even theological truths. The prophets often had simple, naïve, even philosophically false, beliefs about God. Therefore, much of what the Bible says about things, including God, are false.”

Steven Nadler gives us much information about Spinoza’s philosophy; however more clarity is needed. As a private teacher and student of Spinoza’s Ethics, I understand that free will is an illusion and that the laws of necessity and self-preservation govern and direct all of existence. Also, intuition is required to understand his Ethics, reason alone will not help you. His philosophy is to be lived and understood; otherwise, it becomes abstract and only entertaining.

Excellent! thankyou...

Spinoza's philosophy may someday unite the truth of Vedanta, Judaism, the mind of Christ and probably many endogenous spiritual traditions such as native american.

למה למלומדינו הישראליות והישראלים יש אנגלית עלגת ?!

Como eu queria tanto entender Spinoza em Português ..! 🙏❤🌍

Why is Spinoza given all the attention for God in Nature when it's stated in the Tao Te Ching approximately 600 - 400 BCE? GLORY HALLESTUPID!