"Yes, Spinoza was indeed ahead of his time. He was possibly the greatest intellectual rebel in history. He eschewed arbitrary authority. He believed that everything belonged to the causes of a network — there were preceding reasons for all events, including human thoughts and feelings. He was a great champion of the democratic political state. He wanted to abolish all religions and establish a Universalist religion that would be based on reason and would join all human beings together. He was excommunicated by the Jews, persecuted by Catholics and Protestants — had he not been living in the most tolerant and liberal country in the world, 17th century Holland, he would certainly have been burned at the stake.
Even there, however, his books were written anonymously, and even the publisher refused to put the name of the publishing house on his publications. Spinoza was dynamite. Dangerous." [Hier]