(April 22, 2015 at 1:27 am)robvalue Wrote: Deirdre: I've never actually met a deist in real life, at least not one that identifies as such and has given a decent amount of thought to it. So it's a bit hard for me to judge exactly how that would pan out in a relationship. Like you say, it's not going to be the deism that causes the problem, but what kind of thinking patterns the person has. I don't expect my partner to be woo-free, but I couldn't deal with someone who regularly makes it an issue and brings it in to everything. That's just a personal thing; it would get to me too much, and it's not fair on them, because I'd end up with "Bullshit, bullshit" on a loop in my brain during conversations that get wooey.

Trust me, it's atheism with poetic flourishes. 

Erm, no, Godslayer. He was not respectful. And you are completely ignoring things written in posts explaining this (and other things) to you in order for you to keep the position that everyone else here is the asshole.

(April 22, 2015 at 7:28 am)DeistPaladin Wrote:

(April 22, 2015 at 1:27 am)robvalue Wrote: Deirdre: I've never actually met a deist in real life, at least not one that identifies as such and has given a decent amount of thought to it. So it's a bit hard for me to judge exactly how that would pan out in a relationship. Like you say, it's not going to be the deism that causes the problem, but what kind of thinking patterns the person has. I don't expect my partner to be woo-free, but I couldn't deal with someone who regularly makes it an issue and brings it in to everything. That's just a personal thing; it would get to me too much, and it's not fair on them, because I'd end up with "Bullshit, bullshit" on a loop in my brain during conversations that get wooey.

Trust me, it's atheism with poetic flourishes. 

lol I happen to think this too.
I wonder if Thomas Paine would have been an atheist in modern times, although atheism wasn't entirely frowned upon back then. Hard to say.

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(April 22, 2015 at 1:27 am)robvalue Wrote: Deirdre: I've never actually met a deist in real life, at least not one that identifies as such and has given a decent amount of thought to it. So it's a bit hard for me to judge exactly how that would pan out in a relationship. Like you say, it's not going to be the deism that causes the problem, but what kind of thinking patterns the person has. I don't expect my partner to be woo-free, but I couldn't deal with someone who regularly makes it an issue and brings it in to everything. That's just a personal thing; it would get to me too much, and it's not fair on them, because I'd end up with "Bullshit, bullshit" on a loop in my brain during conversations that get wooey.

I had a brief layover in deism recently, before coming back to the position of atheism. Yes, woo would be a deal breaker now for me, mainly because the person into woo would eventually want me to believe his woo, too.
And I just want to talk about REAL things, not 'what if's' anymore. Yea, what if a deity exists. Okay...can we go to dinner now?

(April 22, 2015 at 9:02 am)Deidre32 Wrote: I had a brief layover in deism recently...

It seems that when transitioning from Islamo-Christianity to atheism, deism is a common way station, kind of like a place to sleep for the night on a lengthy journey, which the road to atheism typically is for most people who deconvert from a religion. I think the only people who actually live in my town (or perhaps more accurately, a suburb of the greater metropolitan area of the city of atheism, if you'll pardon me really stretching this analogy past the normal breaking point) are those who were raised without religion. 

Yeah, if it was deism like you guys do it, that'd be fine with me.

If it was combined with truck loads of crystals and mediums and psychics and secret powers and so on, that would do my head in. But really, just deist is no problem for me. I could quite easily state my position as "don't care" and a deist must say the same, it makes no difference either way.

Deism is arrived at through reason, but while that is ‘better than’ the Abrahamic faiths, it still has an element of woo. If a deity exists, and it might…so be it. But, for me, deism sort of feels like you’re hanging onto this hope of a deity, and trying to spin it to sound logical. Afraid to accept that it’s okay to simply not know. I don’t know if that makes sense, but there came a point when I had to stop searching for answers to life outside of myself, and start looking inward. (which is the beauty of atheism)

My girlfriend is a deist and I think it's cool as long as the person doesn't make extraordinary claims.

My girlfriend basically says that it's not possible to prove there is a god so she can't claim to know for a fact, but since we still know little about ourselves and the universe it's reasonable to speculate on the possibility without falling into absurd notions just like it is decent to speculate if aliens or extraterrestrial beings exist. I don't think this is wrong, I don't agree with the sentiment but I if critical thinking leads people to deism so be it. Some deists don't even believe in the afterlife anyway. Anything is better than a fundamentalist pure agnostic

(April 22, 2015 at 9:35 am)robvalue Wrote: Yeah, if it was deism like you guys do it, that'd be fine with me.

Fair enough and one's take on something is important to consider. Once you depart from scripture, an interpretation on what exactly a free thought "ism" means is up for grabs to some extent. 

My wife is an atheist who believes in ghosts. I'm a deist who doesn't believe in the supernatural, including an afterlife. One could exist for all I know but I lack a belief in such things. You'd probably be happier in a relationship with a female analog of me. 

(April 22, 2015 at 10:40 am)Dystopia Wrote: My girlfriend is a deist and I think it's cool as long as the person doesn't make extraordinary claims.

My girlfriend basically says that it's not possible to prove there is a god so she can't claim to know for a fact, but since we still know little about ourselves and the universe it's reasonable to speculate on the possibility without falling into absurd notions just like it is decent to speculate if aliens or extraterrestrial beings exist. I don't think this is wrong, I don't agree with the sentiment but I if critical thinking leads people to deism so be it. Some deists don't even believe in the afterlife anyway. Anything is better than a fundamentalist pure agnostic

I don't know if you know that. Do I? I don't know. 

(April 22, 2015 at 11:57 am)DeistPaladin Wrote:

(April 22, 2015 at 9:35 am)robvalue Wrote: Yeah, if it was deism like you guys do it, that'd be fine with me.

Fair enough and one's take on something is important to consider. Once you depart from scripture, an interpretation on what exactly a free thought "ism" means is up for grabs to some extent. 

My wife is an atheist who believes in ghosts. I'm a deist who doesn't believe in the supernatural, including an afterlife. One could exist for all I know but I lack a belief in such things. You'd probably be happier in a relationship with a female analog of me. 

 Rob and Paladin sitting in a tree..

k-i-s-s-i-n-g