"He went into the family merchant business with his brother and was a respected member of the local synagogue - until, that is, he published ideas about God that were contrary to traditional Jewish teaching, ideas he refused to recant. For these heresies, he was cursed, excommunicated, and shunned. Leaving town (as you would), he ended up in the Hague, where he made earned a little money from his skill as a lens grinder."
"In 1670 he published Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, and if there had been any doubts before that he wasn't an orthodox believer, there were none now. All religions, he said, were essentially life-denying in teaching that our misery today is to be endured as part of our preparation for the life to come. This, Spinoza thought, was absurd. Instead, we should be aiming for a joyous existence in the present moment, the only moment we ever know."
Baruch Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a Jewish family fleeing Spanish persecution and worked in the family merchant business before publishing controversial ideas about God. His views led to cursing, excommunication, and exile to The Hague, where he earned money as a lens grinder. In 1670 he published Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and rejected doctrines that glorify suffering for an afterlife. He argued that God and nature are identical and urged pursuit of present-moment joy through mystical understanding and rational contemplation of truth. He held that religions use intolerance and superstition to control people, though religion may morally constrain the ignorant. He kept spiders and observed nature's joys.
Read at Philosophynow
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