whats your opinion of Deism?

[DeistPaladin]

I personally don't classify deism as religion but rather as a philosophy (hence my use of lower case "d"). This is a subjective matter, I realize, but "religion" to me has certain connotations of structure that deism and pantheism lack. There are no strict dogmas, scripture, clergy, temples, rituals or any other trappings of religion. Were deism to become to dominant "religion" in a country, it would be largely indistinguishable from a secular society.

Reason why I don't say Deist Agnostic is because I see Deism as a form of agnosticism.

True. Deism is only distinguished as a perception of the universe as a grand machine with some mysterious mind behind it. But since we yet know nothing about that mind, we are also somewhat inherently agnostic, the term meaning "no knowledge of spiritual matters".

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My opinion on deism is that believing in a God who created the universe and then gave us no holy books or moral instructions to follow would be sort of a useless God.

Also, I think that the deistic God is one which doesn't have any personality and emotions. In that sense, it's like believing in a God who exists in the form of a natural, universal law that always existed before the creation of the universe and thus believing in such a God is not very different from believing in M-theory or any other scientific explanation of the universe which are also believed by atheists.

I see it as a matter of scale. Theists and their "personal relationship with God" invoke an image in my mind of two bacteria cells in a petri dish* where one tries to sell the other on a "personal relationship with the great lab coat in the sky". The scientist, in this analogy, does exist and did cultivate the bacteria. However, he has no personal relationship with the individual bacteria cells and no way of emotionally relating to their trials and tribulations in their life. The scientist might be a very good and loving person. That's not the issue. The problem here is a matter of scale.

To reference Sagan, we're a tiny blue dot in the vast cosmos. There's no reason to think it was all created just for us or the Creator is watching over us.

* This is intended as a tongue-in-cheek "Far Side" -esque analogy for the bacteria used to make a point.

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I see one major flaw with Deism, it is the same flaw that it shares with Theism. Namely if an complex being created the universe. Then there would necessarily require had to be a even more complex being to create this being.

I've heard Dawkins make a similar argument. My reaction is "what do you base that assertion on?" Simple giving way to complex is very much a part of our universe. We create artificial things that are more complex than ourselves, do we not?

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Or even more straight to the point: Why make the assumption that god(s) exist?

I will admit that I probably can't offer you an argument that will satisfy you. Aside from my "homosexuality proves God" argument, which mostly serves the purpose of aggravating fundies rather than arguing with atheists anyway, my reasons for being a deist and not an atheist are instinctive. Yet, I can't take the label "atheist" with any intellectual honesty because, deep down, I am convinced.

I actually went through a phase for about two weeks where I wondered what was wrong with me, why I couldn't be a "normal atheist" like all of my friends and most of my family. This happened after I realized that most of the arguments for God that I had used were justifications rather than the basis for a conclusion. Hence my "agnostic deist" label, because rationally I admit we don't know and yet, there's my instinctive side.

I'm in awe of the universe as a grand machine. It is the natural that provides my sense of the sublime. But this is an appeal to wonder. Deism is for me the truce between my skeptical brain and sentimental heart, a way for me to keep such spiritual instincts safely grounded in the natural universe.

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The belief in a "Humanoid-Father-Creator" is the first step in the concept of "SIN"; a concept which has been used to subdue, humiliate and opress the human psyche for centuries.

I don't believe in an anthropomorphized deity. AFIAK, deism is a rejection of such a view of God.

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It's the same because there would still be war, death, pain, and suffering if the deistic god is real. He's not any better because he doesn't even do anything to make our lives better.

See my petri dish metaphor to fully understand why the problem of evil is only a problem for those who believe in a personal god.

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My biggest peeve with Deism is the idea that a god would simply 'move on' or 'grow bored' with anything it had created;

This is, as far as I can tell, a strawman attributed to deism, even by the dictionary. The same dictionary falsely defines atheism as "a denial of God", so you can't go by the dictionary.

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Yes there IS something biggDeists just don't want to own up to their own responsibilities...
[/end rant]

Sorry, I couldn't follow your post clearly. Can you explain?