Deism for non-believers

[Skepsis]

Oh, I think the simple answer is that I don't know what I'm talking about. I've glanced at some stuff, but I'm very ignorant of the subject. I will say, however, even though I'm grossly ignorant of the subject, from what I've read, I think you're being overly charitable toward Quine.

Anyway, for some irrational reason I like Quine. However, my bailiwick is cognitive science, psychology, theory of discourses and epistemology. And I'm pretty ignorant even on those subjects. So this is just a novice spitballing, not an educated opinion.

Take anything I have said or will say with a grain of salt, because even in your professed ignorance you likely have much more background than I in anything rooted in philosophy.

I have trouble getting through the first chapter of Being and Nothingness, so I am not in any way a source for philsophical musings. Hell, I'm not even 18. I haven't taken a course in philosophy in my life, and only freshman level college courses. Everything I know comes from my own study and my debate courses.

That said, if I was charitable towards Quine a you suggest, it was only because my only background in Quine is what you had written in your post. I have read a bit of Mr.Immanuel and his observations on sense-perception, but even there I am spotty. Takes a bit of passion, a pinch of patience, and quite a fair share of brains to understand what some philosophers are trying to say, especially those that scorn the layman.

I do, however, have an expansive and ever-growing vocabulary, which is why I have to salute you for making me look up "bailiwick". Wow.