BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

chapter 6 81
On miracles
[1] Just as men habitually call that knowledge which surpasses human
understanding ‘divinity’, so they likewise classify any phenomenon whose
cause is unknown by the common people ‘divine’or a work of God. For the
common people imagine that the power and providence of God are most
clearly evident when they see something happen contrary to the usual
course of things and their habitual views about nature, especially should it
turn out to their bene¢t or advantage.They also suppose the existence of
God is proven by nothing more clearly than from what they perceive as
nature failing to follow its normal course. For this reason they suppose that
all those who explain or attempt to explain phenomena and miracles by
natural causes, are doing away with God or at least divine providence.They
evidently hold that God is inactive whilst nature follows its normal course
and, conversely, that the power of nature and natural causes are super-
£uous whenever God is active. Hence, they imagine that there are two
powers,distinct from each other,the power ofGod and the power of natural
things,andthatthe latter is determinedbyGodin somewayor,as most men
think in ourday, created byhim.Butwhat they understand by these powers,
and what they understand by God and nature, they certainly do not know,
except that they imagine the power of God to be like the authority of royal
majesty, and the power of nature to be like a force and impetus.
The common people therefore call unusual works of nature miracles
or works of God and do not want to know the natural causes of things,
partly from devotion and partly from zeal to oppose those who pursue
natural philosophy. They desire only to hear about that of which they are
most ignorant and consequently about which they marvel most. Evidently,
this is because they can only adore God, and ascribe all things to
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