Philosophical Haiku

Peering through life’s lens God in nature is deduced: The joy of being.

- By MATTHEW HAMMERTON and TERENCE GREEN

Baruch Spinoza was born in Amsterdam into a Jewish family that had fled persecution in Spain. 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.