Determinism

Spinoza- the rationalist philosopher of the continent, circa 1640 AD. Much admired by modern scientists, accused of atheism, yet was a pantheist. He somehow managed to get himself excommunicated from Judaism AND Christianity... a bunch of Rabbi's once urged a crowd of ruffians to try to kill him-Spinoza narrowly escaped being stabbed to death in 'Liberal' tolerant Holland. Myth has it that he had to grind lenses to make a living, but this is not really true- he was independently wealthy-he ground scientific lenses, for research purposes.

Used 208 geometric theorems to show that Descartes was a blockhead. Two substances did not rule the universe- there was only one cosmic substance, with two main 'attributes' (the body, or nature, and mind, or thoughts. 'God' consisted of the finest aspect of our thinking consciousness, yet was also linked to everything else. (The two attributes compared : in a game of chess, we see pieces upon a board. the black rook can take the white queen,something like 'BR2 to XWQ1'...but another way to express this is : carved blocks of wood painted black and white moved spatially across a board with geometric squares painted upon it.....so you see, it is the same thing, described differently. This is how mind and body are in S. thought.

Spinoza was a mechanistic meta-physician- everything has a natural cause, and everything must obey nature and physical laws. One thing, or thought, or feeling necessarily flows from the other. Hence, there can be no deviation, and thus no free will or personal choice. All is predetermined.

Salvation: knowing the causes of the worlds and human actions and thoughts/emotions, which creates understanding, and then equanimity of mind.