According to Spinoza, the superstition stems from the willingness of individuals not to link everything to certainty. Therefore, a person who is in danger or cannot support themselves is most prone to opening to divine assistance. This is an important idea that shows that fear represents a vital mechanism causing superstition to “work” under a variety of conditions that cannot be predicted. The inherent irrationality characteristic of humans is the key to understanding how superstition is born due to human weaknesses and unwillingness to resolve difficult situations on their own. With every person on Earth being influenced by fear to a certain extent, superstition is affected by human instability and confusion, which leaves room for the development of religion. The latter, on the other hand, represents a careful outline of human passion and unpredictability, with these two being at the forefront of people’s credulity and everyday life. In Spinoza’s text, superstition is directly related to religion because people can be led easily while showing extreme fidelity. The prejudice that comes with superstitions cannot be eradicated either.
When Spinoza claims that the Bible teaches only obedience and that the knowledge of God is a gift, not a command, he means that justice and charity do not have to be linked to religion in order to work properly. People should excel in preaching the word of God while trying to understand how their own beliefs could elevate them above the superstition that comes with religion. The concept of the divine mind shared in the Bible is perceived by Spinoza as a call to obedience and not a revelation that has to be made available to every human around the world. In order to prove this idea, Spinoza comes up with a thesis that Scripture does not damage the fundamentals of faith while religion does, through the interface of exploiting obedience and revealed knowledge. Also, Spinoza refuses the existence of subordination between natural knowledge and faith, which makes it safe to say that religion (and the Bible in particular) deprive human beings of their true powers. The notion of ‘sovereign authority’ is another important venue since it shows how the natural right to believe and remain self-determining cannot be taken from people.
The dogmas of faith described by Spinoza represent the true knowledge that cannot be eradicated from the equation of religion and creed or ignored completely since common people cannot be deprived of their right to believe or retain autonomy. The divine doctrine has to be perceived separately from the notion of religion in order for the given person to understand the philosophical background since the Bible itself can be seen as an adaptation and not a standalone text for any given person. The contradiction between the religious text and God’s teachings is the main source of authority for the Bible. Accordingly, the dogmas of faith attain a much more philosophical meaning at times when most of the religious teachings are professed through the prism of obedience that no one contests. There are no tangible rewards to support such beliefs, and Spinoza reinforces this same idea by claiming that simple faith is not enough based on the Bible. There are numerous examples of the need to obey God in the Bible, but it does not go in line with the Law that could be universally acknowledged as the only truth.