(March 11, 2011 at 1:28 pm)everythingafter Wrote: Jefferson and Thomas Paine were clearly brilliant guys, but I don't see how they didn't realize, even in their time, that a god who simply set the universe in motion and then stepped back holds no consequence for us, so, as others have said, why bother believing in that type of god? We have scientific explanations for how we got here following the Big Bang, so why is there any sense in introducing a god to explain what happened before it? Evolution eventually became the accepted means by which humans developed from lower strata, and at one time, human beings' existence was seemingly inexplainable other than by some god, just like the beginning of the universe is now. I think we should just let science to its job. Eventually, we will have the answer. I don't see a point in throwing our hands up and summoning a god in the meantime. It is a very primitive tendency of us humans. So, of course, while deists don't offend me, I don't think its constructive to continue the practice of looking to the heavens for answers to stuff we can't yet explain, like the ancients.
I think they went with the deistic model because it was quite the rage with the scientists at the time. Science was still pretty young back in those days. I agree, there still is no reason to believe in a deism god, but these people were also politicians as well, and to come out as an atheist pretty much ruined your political standing, no matter how well grounded your stance was. I think they were deists more out of social acceptance than anything else..both for the scientific and political communities of the time.
