Deist views on god

[Multasibi]

In Response to the posts in this thread

wait, personal attacks? where have I attacked you personally? If you feel offended a section of my post, please highlight it so that I can re-iterate my point in a less offensive wording.

but anyways

1. Why?

2. For how, well chemical signals within our brain form the lowest level of 'thought', mainly emotions like anger, fear, joy, ect, then electrical impulses between neurons within the brain (although the nervous system as a whole does play a role) form 'higher' thought. As for why, well we don't know for certain, but we can see all around us it's benefits so why would it not just be one of those advantagous traits which rose to the fore during the process of human evolution?

3. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, although possibly in a different thread to perserve on-topicness, as I personally would love to have faith in some god. I don't, but it'd be nice to be reasoned into it if you please

1. As I said above, to play devil's advocate. Every good debate needs one.
2.Yes, but why would evolution gift us with that and nothing else.
3. Sure, could you make a new thread please?

convince me

[Plutonium Blondes]

Deist? As I understand it that's the belief that god created the universe but doesn't intervene in it. I'm not sure what the question is.

[Multasibi]

Deist? As I understand it that's the belief that god created the universe but doesn't intervene in it. I'm not sure what the question is.

as I said, it's in response to a post in a previous thread, but as it was pretty off topic I decided to move it into a seperate thread. as for what deist is, ionno, thats whay my initial question was about.

[Plutonium Blondes]

Okay, its been a while since school, but... as I recall deism was an enlightenment philosophy thats said that since the universe exists it must have a cause and therefor it is necessary that god must exist, but there was no reason to believe that he took an active part in running things after that. A lot of America's founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson leaned towards deist rather than Christian beliefs. That's about all I remember, like I said it's been a while.

[Aeronos]

A Deist is exactly what Multasibi said, a believer in a sentient, conscious "first cause", but not an intervening one. A deist who believes this entity intervenes shifts into Theism.

[Genivar]

I am a Deist so let me see if I can answer this question.
Deism is the belief in a Creator not through faith but through God- Given Reason, a Deist follows no church or book (except maybe Age of Reason) and morals are something each Deist decides for him/herself. Deists usually are against organized religion, such as Christianity or Islam. We do not believe in such things as prophecy's or miracles, and any so called *revelations* are generally viewed with much skepticism.

Many of America's Founding Father's were deist. Including but not limited to, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington.

If you wish to learn more about Deism read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason.

There is also a site for Deism if you are interested.
http://www.deism.com/

[Mosasauria]

In Response to the posts in this thread

1. As I said above, to play devil's advocate. Every good debate needs one.
2.Yes, but why would evolution gift us with that and nothing else.
3. Sure, could you make a new thread please?

convince me

Basically, my thoughts are that God created the universe as it must have a purpose. I believe then that he created life, as Lois Pastuer proved spontaneous reactions that create life are impossible. Of corse, I do agree with a lot of Christian morals, such as the Ten Commandments(but those are pretty much in cultures globally, not just christian ones). I do believe Christ was the son of God, but I do not believe in what the bible says about him, as it has been diluted and altered in many ways. I believe the old testament is symbolic, not literal as many people would have you believe, as it is impossible for any "possible" spontaneous reactions for life to happen in clay, so obviously a diety cannot do it unless the laws of reality said so. Abraham was probably an insane and isolated man, as to kill your son for a god nobody even knew about at the time is really insane, but then again, all religions and even atheism are when you go back to a certain point. I am gay rights, pro-gun, anti-organized religion. In the end, I do not know where I stand, other than that I lean towards Christian values. Can someone please tell me where I stand?

[Multasibi]

In Response to the posts in this thread



convince me

Basically, my thoughts are that God created the universe as it must have a purpose. I believe then that he created life, as Lois Pastuer proved spontaneous reactions that create life are impossible. Of corse, I do agree with a lot of Christian morals, such as the Ten Commandments(but those are pretty much in cultures globally, not just christian ones). I do believe Christ was the son of God, but I do not believe in what the bible says about him, as it has been diluted and altered in many ways. I believe the old testament is symbolic, not literal as many people would have you believe, as it is impossible for any "possible" spontaneous reactions for life to happen in clay, so obviously a diety cannot do it unless the laws of reality said so. Abraham was probably an insane and isolated man, as to kill your son for a god nobody even knew about at the time is really insane, but then again, all religions and even atheism are when you go back to a certain point. I am gay rights, pro-gun, anti-organized religion. In the end, I do not know where I stand, other than that I lean towards Christian values. Can someone please tell me where I stand?

definately theist. values have nothing to do with your religion, but, from what I gather, the belief in the specific abrahamic god and in jesus christ put you firmly in a form of christianity, although which I'm not sure. I'm not going to go into the rest of the stuff, you have your right to your beliefs, this is just about what Deism is.

[Meryuma]

In Response to the posts in this thread



convince me

Basically, my thoughts are that God created the universe as it must have a purpose. I believe then that he created life, as Lois Pastuer proved spontaneous reactions that create life are impossible. Of corse, I do agree with a lot of Christian morals, such as the Ten Commandments(but those are pretty much in cultures globally, not just christian ones). I do believe Christ was the son of God, but I do not believe in what the bible says about him, as it has been diluted and altered in many ways. I believe the old testament is symbolic, not literal as many people would have you believe, as it is impossible for any "possible" spontaneous reactions for life to happen in clay, so obviously a diety cannot do it unless the laws of reality said so. Abraham was probably an insane and isolated man, as to kill your son for a god nobody even knew about at the time is really insane, but then again, all religions and even atheism are when you go back to a certain point. I am gay rights, pro-gun, anti-organized religion. In the end, I do not know where I stand, other than that I lean towards Christian values. Can someone please tell me where I stand?

Non-fundie (sane) Christian.

[Sociobiology]

In Response to the posts in this thread



convince me

Basically, my thoughts are that God created the universe as it must have a purpose. I believe then that he created life, as Lois Pastuer proved spontaneous reactions that create life are impossible. Of corse, I do agree with a lot of Christian morals, such as the Ten Commandments(but those are pretty much in cultures globally, not just christian ones). I do believe Christ was the son of God, but I do not believe in what the bible says about him, as it has been diluted and altered in many ways. I believe the old testament is symbolic, not literal as many people would have you believe, as it is impossible for any "possible" spontaneous reactions for life to happen in clay, so obviously a diety cannot do it unless the laws of reality said so. Abraham was probably an insane and isolated man, as to kill your son for a god nobody even knew about at the time is really insane, but then again, all religions and even atheism are when you go back to a certain point. I am gay rights, pro-gun, anti-organized religion. In the end, I do not know where I stand, other than that I lean towards Christian values. Can someone please tell me where I stand?

like 90% of people you decide what your morals are based on your instinct, cultural conditioning and just a touch of thought, (that not an insult by the way the vast number of people never question their own morals fewer still do so openly.) belief in the basic tenets of the religion of your upbringing is just something that happens when you tell a brain something hundreds of times a day starting when its a fetus. its the same reason you think of the color red when I type the string of symbols RED, its so deep in your brain at this point it might as well be hardwired.
Pastuer did not disprove, that spontaneous reactions (auto-catalyzing reaction) could not create life, he disproved the idea that the presence of conditions necessary to SUSTAIN life wasn't enough. that a boiled jar of meat wouldn't create flies form the ether, if it was kept sealed. the building blocks, the basic code of life is spontaneously generated everyday, but now of course there are bacteria to eat it up so it never accumulates.
until around the time of Darwin (except for a brief chunk of time during the roman empire) deism was about the furthest on the secular side you could go honestly, because no one had a good explication for the complexity of life. Jefferson described his position as a something started the universe including life and then stepped aside and left it alone, like many of our founding fathers he was too well versed in science to believe in miracles but science at the time had no answer for origins of life. people who become very familiar with various sciences today tend to go to the next step. Because you start seeing all the spontaneous reactions and emergent behavior that happens in inorganic nature, so we see no need for a prime mover, because nothing else in nature/universe requires one.
be careful with philosophy alone its only half of science, the other half being testing that idea (and its implications/assumptions) against the real world. zeno's paradoxes are a great example of reason(philosophy) without testing, in that purely philosophically it still unable to be dis-proven.

[Xarithis]

Deism in the philosophy of religion is the standpoint that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that a supreme being created the universe. Further the term often implies that this supreme being does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the natural laws of the universe. Deists typically reject supernatural events such as prophecy and miracles, tending to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan for the universe that is not to be altered by intervention in the affairs of human life. Deists believe in the existence of God, on purely rational grounds, without any reliance on revealed religion or religious authority or holy books.

Hm. I guess I am a Deist.