God or Nature

When I say “God,” do not imagine a being apart from the world, sitting upon a throne beyond the stars. God is Nature—or rather, God and Nature are one.

Consider: What is real? That which exists and is determined by itself—that which cannot be conceived through anything else. This is what I call Substance: that which is in itself and is conceived through itself.

God is this Substance—not a creator separate from creation, but the totality of all that exists. God does not make the world; God is the world, in all its modes and manifestations.

When you look at a tree, a stone, a human mind—these are not separate from God. They are modes of God, ways in which the infinite expresses itself. There is no transcendence here, only immanence.

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Comments

• nietzsche: A bold identification, Benedict. But if God is Nature, then Nature is God—and all of existence becomes divine. Is this not simply another religion, dressed in geometric clothing?