Wads4

I agree, mankind is separating into two distinct species,-the enlightened product of secularist Science, and the primitives who are stuck in the 1st century.
The analogy is not apt, in fact it is the fallacy of the Extended Analogy. I for one, am not a piece of metal filing , but a thinking human being.

Johnny Skeptic

How did this knowledge help Spinoza after he died, or Jesus for that matter after he died?

How did Spinoza know what Jesus said? What sources did he use?

No Robots

Spinoza defines intuition very carefully:

This kind of knowledge proceeds from an adequate idea of the absolute essence of certain attributes of God to the adequate knowledge of the essence of things.

One Spinoza student likens it to the Zen principle of satori.

We can easily compare distorted science, particularly with regard to race, with the distortions of religion.

No Robots

Further conceive, I beg, that a stone while continuing in motion, should be capable of thinking and knowing, that it is endeavoring, as far as it can, to continue to move. Such a stone, being conscious merely of its own endeavor and not at all indifferent, would believe itself to be completely free, and would think that it continued in motion solely because of its own wish. This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but they are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.

--Letter 62 (Spinoza to John Rieuwerts)

No Robots

Their meme, which they understood as their spirit or essential self, is immortal: they live in the hearts and minds of millions.

Spinoza is the founder of modern Bible interpretation. Here he sums up his methodology:

I may sum up the matter by saying that the method of interpreting Scripture does not widely differ from the method of interpreting nature - in fact, it is almost the same. For as the interpretation of nature consists in the examination of the history of nature, and therefrom deducing definitions of natural phenomena on certain fixed axioms, so Scriptural interpretation proceeds by the examination of Scripture, and inferring the intention of its authors as a legitimate conclusion from its fundamental principles. By working in this manner everyone will always advance without danger of error - that is, if they admit no principles for interpreting Scripture, and discussing its contents save such as they find in Scripture itself - and will be able with equal security to discuss what surpasses our understanding, and what is known by the natural light of reason.

Johnny Skeptic

So if everyone on earth dies, and humans become extinct, Spinoza's and Jesus' spirits are dead, right?

Bartender

I must have read the wrong bible.....

No Robots

Their meme no longer spreads to other humans, correct. However, there is a flip side to immortality. As I said earlier, the idea is to identify our own life with that of Being itself. This is what Christ meant by "I am one with the Father". In his own earthly life he saw himself as nothing but a manifestation of Being itself, which is eternal. Further, Being itself is what it is by virtue of our individual existence. Without us, it wouldn't be what it is. So immortality is a kind of triple fail safe: we live eternally within the species, within Being, and within ourselves. Death is an illusion, a superstition.

Johnny Skeptic

But how can we be reasonably certain that Christ as you describe him was right? What reliable means of corroboration are available to us to back up what you claim? Is it your position that intelligent people by random genetic chance have an advantage over less intelligent people regarding finding the truth? Do you believe that originally all that existed in the universe was an eternal being? Do you believe that God established morality?

What about animals? Do they have a spirit? Some animal researchers claim that some of the most intelligent animals are self aware. What evidence do you have that humans are anything more than the most intelligent animals?

aa5874

First of all, there is no evidence that Jesus Christ wrote or said anything. The so-called words of Jesus are unverifialbe, no date can be affixed to his birth or his life, and with 2000 years already past, we are sure he is dead.

Can you show me a document that is written by Jesus Christ and has been authenticated? Jesus Christ, my friend, appears to be a rumor.