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Why are deists so annoying?
#31
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
(August 6, 2014 at 3:50 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Maybe you should tell her there's a joystick involved?

I think the sometimes awesome in game sex scenes are a better draw. Plus the good old "innuendo hour" which actually lasts all evening.
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#32
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
Oh sorry about the derail also. Oopsies.
Umm...Deists....they never bother me any.

Deist: I have no religion but I do believe in a higher power
Losty: cool beans, I'm making vegetable lasagna for dinner you're welcome to join me.
D: awesome I love veggie lasagna
L: I know right!? You want some coffee?
D: nah I don't like coffee
L:GTFO -_-

As long as you like coffee you can be a theist or a deist or whatever else there is. I don't care.
(August 21, 2017 at 11:31 pm)KevinM1 Wrote: "I'm not a troll"
Religious Views: He gay

0/10

Hammy Wrote:and we also have a sheep on our bed underneath as well
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#33
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
(August 6, 2014 at 3:58 pm)Losty Wrote: Oh sorry about the derail also. Oopsies.
Umm...Deists....they never bother me any.

Deist: I have no religion but I do believe in a higher power
Losty: cool beans, I'm making vegetable lasagna for dinner you're welcome to join me.
D: awesome I love veggie lasagna
L: I know right!? You want some coffee?
D: nah I don't like coffee
L:GTFO -_-

As long as you like coffee you can be a theist or a deist or whatever else there is. I don't care.
I'd have a coffee, expresso please. It doesn't bother me that they're deists, what bothers me is their argumentative rhetoric and their sense of superiority.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you

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#34
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
I have never seen that kind of behavior from a Deist. Maybe my Deists are just better than yours. [Image: attachment.php?attachmentid=371336&d=1380227596&thumb=1]


Ps. it's espresso
(August 21, 2017 at 11:31 pm)KevinM1 Wrote: "I'm not a troll"
Religious Views: He gay

0/10

Hammy Wrote:and we also have a sheep on our bed underneath as well
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#35
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
(August 6, 2014 at 3:50 pm)Blackout Wrote: They don't always think with their hearts, not according to them, they usually spit out lots of philosophical arguments to justify god's existence, the main ones being the cosmological first cause argument, the argument from complexity. Many of them say rationality is their tool to believe that a deity exists. I will agree deism has no dogmas (even their belief in god can be questioned, that's why some deists become atheists later), and many of these deists seem fairly intelligent people, they are just afraid to let go the other hand. And they get annoyed when I tell them deism is an unfalsifiable claim (it is).

I think the reason deists, from my experience similarly to theists, get so easily offended and hurt with critics is because they know deism, just like theism, is full of flaws and they are afraid to see their position refuted successfully. As an atheist, I gladly accept all critics, I usually say that to give atheism a better stance we ought to refute all critics, refusing them only shows fear.

I don't think they "always" think with their hearts; but it's been my experience that most people, both believer and atheist, don't practice rational thinking very well.

I haven't really seen the sensitivity you ascribe to deists, but I haven't interacted much with them.

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#36
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
(August 6, 2014 at 3:54 pm)Losty Wrote: I don't even know how to play nintendo
* Nine twitches
(August 6, 2014 at 3:54 pm)Losty Wrote: and Vosur was telling me about his game and I was like oh hell no. Tarty tried to explain another one but I just didn't get it.
I did download this game on my phone. I haven't tried it yet. It's called Ingress. I will let you know how it goes.
It's a start I guess. I just wish everyone would experience the adrenaline rush while dodging arrows and being narrowly missed by a dragons fire breath. Or felt genuine heartbreak as a character you have spent hours getting to know and fighting with is killed brutally and unexpectedly. And the exhausted pride of finishing a game after a 8 hour non-stop struggle to save a world that you became inexplicably attached to.

I guess you have the advantage of playing all the greats for the first time if you ever get into it. Just don't play Dragon Age 2.. It's not worth it.

(August 6, 2014 at 3:54 pm)Losty Wrote: Oh and yea yea you caught back up. All I have to say is, I did not start this war, but I will finish it. :p

I thought it had already finished but now I'm back in the fight!

[Image: giphy.gif]

(August 6, 2014 at 3:58 pm)Losty Wrote: As long as you like coffee you can be a theist or a deist or whatever else there is. I don't care.

Angel
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#37
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
It's a waste of time to criticize Deists. They are not religious folk, don't attend church, don't have clergy. Normally they side with Atheists on separation of Church of State, Evolution and most other important issues. Definitely more important things out there to do.
[Image: dcep7c.jpg]
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#38
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
(August 6, 2014 at 1:20 pm)Tonus Wrote: The few deists I know seem to be aware that their belief is mostly based on intuition and thin arguments like the designed or fine-tuned universe. They reject the idea of a hands-on god who demands the attention of the infinitesimally tiny beings that exist in an infinitesimally tiny corner of the universes it has presumably created.

I'm married to a deist. Intuition is his only argument and he won't tell you he's right, only that he feels there is a creator. He's pretty sure that creator is not much interested in the lives of people though. I don't find him frustrating simply because he isn't interested in convincing others, understands he has no argument anyway, and doesn't think that his belief answers any real questions. So his belief does not conflict with any possible science or history.

It's a little like someone who will tell you it really doesn't make a difference, but knocks on wood anyway. Come to think of it, he does knock on wood. Tongue

Most deists I know are like this. But there are a few who will tell you that if only you were more enlightened or spiritual, or your aura were something or another, you believe too. They are annoying.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god.  If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
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#39
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
Deism, since it lacks any unifying dogma (aside from a shared fuzzy notion of some sort of First Cause and even this point is custom defined for each individual) its proponents will vary as wildly as atheists. As many atheists will attest, aside from your lack of belief in any god or gods, you can be as diverse as the number of radii that can be drawn from the center of a circle.

Hypothetically, what if the only atheists I knew were Ayn Rand and her supporters? To put it kindly, I'd come away with a mistaken idea of atheism or make a broad brush judgment about them. I've also had some experiences with atheists who seem to have emotional issues with the "G" word and felt inspired to immediately start flaming me with all manner of ad hominems without any provocation I could see. I know they are by far the exception rather than the rule but what if such people were my only experience with atheists?

There certainly are deists who are assholes out there. In my early days of activism in the free thought movement, I had a bad run in with another deist which resulted in a video flame war on You Tube over the issue of abortion. Just because I meet someone who says (s)he's a deist doesn't mean I'll like this person or that we'll get along or agree on anything else.

I would only ask that you keep in mind that we are a minority in the freethought movement and as such, you might have simply had a limited statistical sample. See "New Coke" for an example of how surveying a limited sample can cause you to come to the wrong conclusion.

My wife is an atheist who earnestly believes in ghosts. I'm a deist who rejects the idea and lacks a belief in any afterlife. So there you go. We're all individuals and, as freethinkers, we don't follow any scripts on what conclusions we draw.

Your mileage may vary but my take on deism can be described in one of the following ways:
  • It's just like atheism ...except for that part where we believe in God.
  • Atheism with poetic flourishes.
  • Atheism except that we add a little punch to our rejection of religion by doing it in the name of God.

Humor aside, there's a lot of truth to the tongue-in-cheek definitions above. Were I to ever successfully shift to atheism, nothing in my life would change. My evaluation of morality, my sense of meaning in my life, the way I behave and act, my political views and the way I save 10% of my income and sleep in on Sundays wouldn't change. All that separates me from the atheist version of me would be some philosophical distinctions, and some rather abstract ones at that.

I don't know what deists Richard Dawkins spoke with before writing "The God Delusion" but his definition of deism (as "watered down theism") was way off. The only thing I have in common with the Christian or Muslim is that we have a belief in "God", and even this point contains a chasm of difference in the way we define the shared term.

This is why I could serve as the director of the Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers for a few years without any issues either in my purpose in running the organization or with its members.

For a time, about a two week period in my life, I had something of what could be called a crisis of non-faith. No, really, I'm serious. I actually wondered what was wrong with me, why I couldn't be a "normal" atheist like all of my friends and family. Why couldn't I, as many would say, "take the final step" or figure out why God was so firmly a part of my philosophical outlook. I came to accept it as just my instinctive nature.

Somewhere around here I posted a thread that goes into my take on deism in greater detail. I'll try to dig it up and post a link.

That thread also does contain my "proof" of deism: Homosexuality proves God! ...well, maybe not but it is at least a proof that Christian apologists aren't likely to hijack any time soon. Although, you know, instead of the banana... oh sorry, I was about to go too far again. My wife tells me I do that. It must be especially jarring when juxtaposed with my otherwise gentlemanly demeanor.

Not that the two are related, but I discovered I'm a deist about the same time I discovered I'm bisexual. I mention it only to underscore that I didn't "convert". I discovered that's what I am and have been all along. Maybe it's just the way my brain is wired. God gene anyone? Or perhaps my instincts are on to something. Who knows?

(August 6, 2014 at 11:32 am)Bibliofagus Wrote: Deist god looks a lot like biblegod in one aspect in my opinion. It's a creator who stopped intervening at some point.

We're agnostic with regard to the specifics about God (or at least that's my take on deism, FWIW).

I'm inclined against a personal god like the ones religions create simply on the grounds of scale. I often use the "petri dish" analogy, where one bacteria cell says so another (in The Far Side style) "Let me tell you about my personal relationship with The Great Lab Coat In The Sky". The existence of the scientist/creator doesn't at all mean that this scientist takes a personal interest or is capable of doing so.

(August 6, 2014 at 1:43 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Deists and Buddhists are both like a spiritual Switzerland. Always in the middle, not making waves, pretty much on the sidelines.

I've never been accused of being neutral and not wanting to make waves with regards to religion. I think I resent that. Wink

I think the America/Britain analogy might be better, if we must use nations in this metaphor. Both are democracies just as both atheists and deists are free thinkers. Britain has a monarch but it only serves a ceremonial role while deists have God but It's only there for the poetic flourishes.

Did I really just use America in my analogy for atheists?

Oh the irony.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
...      -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
...       -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
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#40
RE: Why are deists so annoying?
I have this thing in a box. I can't describe it, and I don't really know what is in it, and you're not allowed to open it. But we can talk about it if you want. Does anyone want to talk about what's in my box? Like I said, I don't know what it is. Actually, you can't know what it is, but it's in the box, that's for sure.

That's basically deism. Most boring conversation piece in the history of the world.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
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