Question for deists: Why is there a Creator?

[Zenith]

Ooh ooh oohh an atheism vs deism battle, I WANT IN!

Good! Perhaps you can resurrect this thread. It seems pretty dead. Perhaps we need an enthusiastic deist.

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Someone asked about pantheism and how it relates to deism, didnt see a response to the question so:

-Pantheism is the belief that 'God' and 'the universe'/'nature' are synomynous, nature = god. You can leave it at that or take it further with things being interconnected into some sort of panpsychism, never got into it myself, seemed like a pointless semantic gymnastic exercise in its weakest form, and more religious shenanigans in its stronger forms. Non personal, non anthropomorphic... (I'm not the best person to ask for a definition of it as you can see, pantheists might object to how I've described their belief)
-Deism is the belief that there is a creator (or creators) who created the universe. That's it. Again, non personal, non anthropomorphic. Anything after that is speculation.

You didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway:
-Pandeism is a combination of the two. The creator deity created the universe, by becoming the universe. It's easier to speculate reasons for the creation with pandeism than it is with deism (and funner as well). Its more logical than deism for that reason(Imma drawnin my lines in the sand here, Imma take EVERBODY on!).

some prefixs/affixes explained...
-en- means that the god is the universe, BUT, there is more to the god than the universe. 100% of the universe is within or=god, but god is larger than just that. So panendeism would be the belief that the creator deity, created the universe, by mostly becoming the universe, but it left some part of itself outside, that didn't become the universe. Panentheism, the universe/nature = a part of god.
-poly- of course means multiple creators. Polypanendeism... =P

The deistic/pandeistic god needn't be infinite, only 'very' x (intelligent, powerful) enough to start the universe going as it is, and nothing more.

I do seriously doubt the claims of "like any other religion". The panthiests and deists would never start annihilating each other over doctrine. "God = universe" or A "deity/s created the universe" if that's it then what's to fight about, there are no ramifications. Neither has much scope for real life applications, might as well be atheists really (who believe in a god =P). Apatheism almost, its irelevent in day to day living, untill you crave a good debate or are probing the origins of the universe.

I'd say a better definition of Deism is "There is at least one deity who created the universe" rather than "a deity created the universe". But then that's me, I seriously doubt there are many deists who will claim one, and only one. "At least one", I feel, is more accurate.

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Now, reading what you've wrote, I feel the need to ask: why do you guys think is the difference between wisdom and madness?
I've once read a question and bit of a discussion on answers.yahoo.com saying "I pray to God. Why does she not answer to me?" and he gave the detail "Mother Earth is a she, not a he!"

and look some questions I've just found on answers.yahoo.com:
"What do you think about Jesus telling the Essenes to pray to "Mother Nature"?" - where the hell did he read that??
"Can we pray to Mother Nature for immunity to HIV in Darwin's name, Amen?"
"Have you ever heard about mother nature's wrath?"
"Are human beings the bastard offsprings of an absent father and an abusive mother-nature?"
"Who/what is Mother Nature?"
"Is Mother Nature< Different ,From christianity and islam belief.?"
"What's Mother Nature telling us?"
and a very funny question:
"Anyone please tell me if the world will actually end in 2012!?"

So I must say that people are able to believe anything.
And yeah, again... what's the difference between wisdom and madness?

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I was probably a deist or pantheist back in the day, also I believed in much the same stuff about human morality evolving in a 'better' direction as well.

And how did you change your mind about that? I suppose it was not boredom.