Ask A Deist For Answers!

[CDWolfe]

I welcome any and all questions regarding religion and how deism can easily explain anything therein. Fire away!

 

[Iti oj]

How do you.mix christianity with diesm?

 

[CDWolfe]

How do you.mix christianity with diesm?

Great question! While it may seem at odds, I'll do my best to explain the principles behind "Christian Deism." I grew up as a Southern Baptist, but as I got older I started questioning things. I am VERY big into science (especially astronomy) and tend to think outside of the box.

I firmly believe in God, who is the same God as Jews, Christians and Muslims. However, I believe that God, as the creator, put forth the laws of nature, and the end result is what we see all around us. Everything is a result of natural order, evolution, and free will. For that reason, God does not actively play a role in our lives. He put everything into motion but has moved on to other things. Bad things happen either because nature is at work (earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc) or someone makes a CHOICE to do something bad. That explains the deistic portion.

The Christian side of me associates with the moral teachings of Jesus. Whether or not he was divine is not my concern as it does not change his message. If he was the son of God, so be it. If not, as orthodox Judaism claims, so be it...it makes no difference in what he preached. The belief in Jesus as the Messiah is a personal choice. I am still 100% undecided (and may never know) but I lean toward saying yes he was.

I am one that does not take the Bible literally. Metaphors, parables, unexplained phenomenon that science can now explain, mistranslations, etc. I believe in God, I believe in His laws of nature, and I believe in the moral teachings of Jesus.

 

[GawdAweful]

Without intervening in his creation how can free will exist within a Deistic worldview? And how is it really different than Atheism in its implications if our morality is never made accountable?

 

[CDWolfe]

Without intervening in his creation how can free will exist within a Deistic worldview? And how is it really different than Atheism in its implications if our morality is never made accountable?

Another good question...allow me to break it down into 2 parts:

1. Without intervening in his creation how can free will exist within a Deistic worldview?

A: Deism is the belief in God (or a higher power) but that God does not interfere with the universe, free will, nature, etc. What He created long ago runs on its own accord, guided by the laws of nature He wrote at the time of creation. As such, free will is viewed as a gift from God, and we make our own choices and bear the consequences therein. True free will means there is no interference from God.

To put it more simply, God created our universe but has moved on to other things. The laws of nature and free will choice cause day to day events.

2. And how is it really different than Atheism in its implications if our morality is never made accountable?

A: Atheism is the belief that there is no god, period. Deists believe in God or some form of a higher power.

Morality is a separate issue. Individual religions have their own views on what is moral and what isn't. I'll touch more on morality in a while. At work and have to go for now.

(continued)

Getting back to morality...what makes us moral if there are no repercussions for our actions? All we have is the belief or idea that we can be punished in death when God judges us. However, this can't be proven one way or another. When you die, that's it, there's nothing for you to report back on. You can't write a post-mortum essay, you can't communicate your findings, you can't give any shred of evidence that an afterlife even exists. "Beyond death" is the greatest, unsolvable mystery.

Is it possible that religions developed ideas of an afterlife to try and use scare tactics, to get people to "be good" instead of following a path of evil? Absolutely!

Is it possible that there is no afterlife? Absolutely! There is not one shred of physical evidence that you can examine, that would indicate anything beyond death. Several religions around the world do not believe in an afterlife. You live, you die, game over.

However, most people are hard wired at birth to feel "something" tugging at their subconscious...that little voice that tells you not to do something because it is wrong. Where does that little voice come from? What makes you think twice before doing something that may potentially harm others in some form or fashion? Perhaps God programmed us with those feelings in order to keep us in-line without the need of scare tactics or post-mortum threats.

I don't steal, very rarely lie, and would never consider intentionally harming another human being. Not because I have been taught differently, was disciplined growing up, or am some type of pansy...but because things weigh on my subconscious mind and that little voice reminds me not to do things. There's your morality!

 

[UU_David]

Some great responses CDWolfe.

I (respectfully) think it should be pointed out that the responses that CDWolfe is giving are not universal viewpoints that all Deists would necessarily share.

Yours is a Deism that has roots in Christianity, or that is how I read it from your responses, but Deism is by definition a hugely open minded, ambiguous label for a range of viewpoints.

Deism could indeed represent a liberal Christian perspective, but equally, another person's Deism could be summed up as :-

"I claim to know nothing other than that I believe that a force, a god, or perhaps consciousness higher than mankind was involved in the instigation of what we now perceive as our Universe"

To some Deists, a statement such as that above is really all they subscribe to, or need.

The Dutch use the term "Ietsism", which comes from the word 'Iet' which loosely translates as "something" or "somethingism". I think this is a great way to describe Deism. It says "I believe that there is something". (as opposed to a belief that no consciousness or god over and above man exists and that the universe came about through co-incidence).

So as Deists it is difficult to profess to "answer questions about Deism" because what we are really doing is "answering questions about ourselves".