Madison gallery signing set

There will be a special author event 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Mad Arts gallery at 117 N. Main St. in downtown Madison featuring Criglersville resident and author, Frank Dixon, who will speak and sign his new philosophy book, “Spinoza’s God.” Dixon, who has a strong Madison County following, will speak to attendees for 15 minutes at the top of each hour, and answer questions and sign books during breaks. This format will continue throughout the afternoon.

Dixon is an entertaining orator, with a style reminiscent of Mark Twain. Books may be purchased for $18.95 on Friday, Jan. 22 or at the event. All credit cards are honored.

Dixon’s “Spinoza’s God,” along with other books by local authors, will continue to be for sale at the Mad Arts gallery. The Mad Arts gallery is in Dr. G.N. Thrift’s circa 1832 two-story brick office building. For information, call (540) 923-4967.

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was one of the great 17th century rationalist philosophers and has been called “the philosopher’s philosopher” and the founder of the modern worldview.

Dixon said his new book has two purposes, one, to clarify Spinoza’s difficult philosophy, and, two, to “take on the overdue task of showing how Spinoza’s philosophy of God can … withstand the assaults leveled at it and, for that matter, at all other conceptions of God by philosophers who follow the forking paths of Immanuel Kant’s critical idealism.”

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The following is from a recent contributed question-and-answer session with Frank Dixon about his book.

Q. You said that one of your critics said your book is “dangerous.” What did he mean?

A.Spinoza’s philosophy was always a danger to orthodox religion, but it was also obscure. The critic meant that by making the philosophy accessible to most people, I had created a danger.

Q.Was he right?

A.I don’t think so. Those who are secure in their faith will disagree with Spinoza, even after they understand him. Those whose faith is beset by doubts will find a rational basis for belief in something greater than themselves.

Q.Many will probably not be familiar with either Spinoza or “the forking paths” opened by Kant. Can you briefly summarize them?

A.Well, it took me seven chapters to clarify Spinoza, but briefly he defined God in such a way that no reasonable doubts remain about His existence. God is the source of all-that-is. That’s the subtitle of my book. Herr Kant, on the other hand, finally declared, after 700 pages of tortured logic that he could not prove God’s existence. My book seeks a way to correct Kant’s mistake.

Q.Then why anyone would say your book is a danger?

A.Well, Spinoza does not define God the way orthodox religions do. It’s widely believed that any change to the commonly accepted belief would lead to perdition. Hence, the danger.

Q.And can folks take it that you do not share that fear?

A.I do not. I believe with Spinoza that God did not make a mistake when He endowed us with reason. Spinoza’s God is incapable of error.

Q.But people are not so fortunate?

A.Right. We make mistakes, but many of our errors trace to our emotions, our wishes and dreams. Others to reasoning from false premises. God is the ultimate premise. If we’re wrong about Him, we’re in deep trouble.

Q.Can you tell more about those “forking paths.”?

A.Modern philosophers have abandoned the search for the truth of God. They’ve fallen into the trap of believing that just because the human mind has created all ideas about God, there’s something false about them. Spinoza challenges us to see ourselves as God would, to see without error. That’s hard to do, but to make the effort is the task and service of true religion. That’s what I’ve written about.

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About Frank Dixon: Frank Dixon is a 1949 graduate of Murphy High School in Mobile, Ala. and attended the University of Alabama for one semester. He matriculated in logic while working for five years in Mobile, Ala. rail yards.

For shorter periods he labored in Richmond as a stamper of gilt letters on Bibles and hymnals, and in Washington D.C. as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman. Giving up on gainful employment he took a position in Fairhope, Ala. as an essentially unpaid high school basketball coach.

When the pleasures of that pastime ended, he became a civil servant. He retired in 1994 from the Defense Logistics Agency in Alexandria, where, for the last 17 years of what turned out to be his career, he served as the chief of the agency’s Computer and Communications Security Office.

He lives with his wife, Bonnie Dixon, in Criglersville, which he describes as “a place on the outskirts of Everywhere.” He is a frequent letter-to-the-editor contributor to The Madison County Eagle and lectures occasionally to the Washington, D.C. Spinoza Society, where he was inspired and encouraged to write his latest book.