Q&A: Everyone Is God
Everyone Is God
Question
Recently I happened to meet a few oddballs who hold a pretty strange view, but one they claim is proven and solid.
Basically, there is no binding system of laws on anyone; we are all one mass that makes up a single God who created us 13 billion years ago (exactly!), and Jewish law only creates separateness and does not inspire hope for change. They mentioned someone named Maxwell (I know Maxwell's equations—maybe he decided to convert and get involved in postmodernism?!)
My question is: where can I find material on this approach, what is it called, and maybe—have you written a column about it in the past?
Thank you very much.
Answer
I don’t know and I’m not familiar with it. Maxwell died before modernism was born, and certainly before postmodernism.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t think this is actually a whole established approach that exists and has a name.
In the garbage streams of New Age stuff, they really do tend to babble this nonsense, and in all kinds of garbage currents of neo-paganism that hug trees.
Naturally there are also nice, good Jews who try to make a “Jewish” version of this bullshit, relying on—or rather distorting—all kinds of quote fragments from kabbalists and mystical literature.
Take a look in the Rabbi's cosmological notebook, on strong emergence and Spinoza and God as the soul of the world.