Spinoza influenced by paleolithic cave
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These are the universal and eternal aspects of the world, and they do not come into or go out of being; Spinoza calls them “infinite modes”. Yet Spinoza held that it is possible for the human mind to know God's own essence, and that the use of reason reveals that the Bible should be seen simply as historically-conditioned text that uses elaborate imagery and fables to convey a simple moral message (and so is not a source of philosophical truth).
Those things that are “in” God (or, more precisely, in God’s attributes) are what Spinoza calls ‘modes’ (or ‘affections’).
As soon as this preliminary conclusion has been established, Spinoza immediately reveals the objective of his attack. “Insofar as men are torn by affects that are passions, they can be contrary to one another …[But] insofar as men live according to the guidance of reason, they must do only those things that are good for human nature, and hence, for each man, i.e., those things that agree with the nature of each man.
“A true idea means nothing other than knowing a thing perfectly, or in the best way”(IIp43s). While the state should be free from interference by clergy, it does have a right to regulate public religious matters. Desire and Affect: Spinoza as Psychologist, New York: Little Room Press.
The study of Scripture, or Biblical hermeneutics, should therefore proceed as the study of nature, or natural science, proceeds: by gathering and evaluating empirical data, that is, by examining the “book” itself—along with the contextual conditions of its composition—for its general principles.
I hold that the method of interpreting Scripture is no different from the method of interpreting Nature, and is in fact in complete accord with it.God produces that world by a spontaneous act of free will, and could just as easily have not created anything outside himself. First U.S. edition, 2000. There may be aspects of God that are ontologically or epistemologically distinct from the world, but for pantheism this must not imply that God is essentially separate from the world.
In other words, Spinoza held a strict form of determinism; given the laws and some state of finite modes at a particular time, the rest of history was determined and inevitable. But the objects of our passions, being external to us, are completely beyond our control. To the degree that our mind is occupied with ideas of finite things (such as our body, its affects, and the objects of its emotions), it is in a sense constituted by such ideas, and so lasts only as long as they do.
In contrast with Maimonides’ account, Spinoza insists that the object of Scripture is not to impart truth or knowledge, but to compel obedience and regulate our conduct. From Bondage to Freedom: Spinoza on Human Excellence, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Things happen only because of Nature and its laws. He also defends, at least as a political ideal, the tolerant, secular, and democratic polity.
3.1 On Religion and Scripture
Spinoza begins the TTP by alerting his readers, through a kind of “natural history of religion”, to just those superstitious beliefs and behaviors that clergy, by playing on ordinary human emotions, encourage in their followers.
The cherem gives little detail on the offenses, simply citing "abominable heresies" and "monstrous deeds." Despite this, there is little question that Spinoza must have been publicly advancing some of the views that he would later put into his treatises, wherein he denied that the Bible was a source of literal truth, denied that the Jews were divinely privileged, and denied that God acts by choice.
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