Why Am I a Jew?: Spinoza Revisited

by Michael Baum

Overview

The book starts by considering mankind's role in the complex ecological system of our planet and then considers the place of mankind in the cosmos while also looking inward at our own microcosm. It then explains how these scientific insights lead to the ontological search for God. The good, the bad, and the ugly sides of religious beliefs are considered and it is suggested that we are looking for "God" in the wrong place. The book then explains a justification for the author's apparent cognitive dissonance of retaining a Jewish identity whilst denying the existence of a God with the attributes of man. The author then argues that we should look for "God" in the infinitely small spaces within ourselves instead of the infinitely large spaces of the universe. His "God" would not mind whether individuals believed in "him" or not, so long as they practiced their life as the author practices his medicine: in a never-ending quest to improve the length and quality of the lives of his patients. This book should improve the reader's knowledge of the philosophers who wrote on the ontology of God. It also rediscovers that Baruch Spinoza had already reached the conclusions of modern-day thinkers more than 350 years ago.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666723038
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	01/06/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	162
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Michael Baum qualified as a doctor in 1960 and was appointed to the chair of surgery in 1980 at Kings College London and later appointed Professor of Surgery at the Institute of Cancer Research and then to a chair of surgery at University College London in 1997. When he retired from clinical work as a surgeon at the age of sixty-seven, he was appointed as visiting professor in Medical Humanities.

Michael Baum qualified in medicine at Birmingham University in 1960. He held chairs of surgery at Kings College London, the Institute of Cancer Research, and University College London. On retiring as a professor of surgery at University College London in 2010, he spent the rest of his career teaching and promoting “medical humanities” including fine art, literature, and philosophy. He was a medical officer at the Masada dig and researched biblical archaeology at the Palestine Exploration Fund.