Deism
June 7, 2014 at 12:17 am
(This post was last modified: June 7, 2014 at 12:18 am by Rampant.A.I..)
(June 6, 2014 at 1:20 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote:(June 6, 2014 at 11:42 am)beamo1080 Wrote: But at that point, why even call it god?
Because of what I wrote:
Quote:...I observe the universe and I see a grand machine. I reflect on the development of human evolution, including not just the enlarging cranial capacity but all the other things that came together which made our civilization possible, and I see intent.
The philosophical distinction with atheism is whether or not there's anything at the wheel of this car. Maybe I'm wrong and we hit the cosmic lottery. I think one indication might be once we venture out there if we find much in the way of intelligent life and other civilizations. For the deist model to hold, I would expect we'd find we're not the only petri dish in God's lab. If it is just us, the cosmic lottery looks like a stronger explanation.
By the way, I often use the petri dish analogy to communicate what I think is a more believable scenario where God exists. I joke about the two bacteria cells talking to each other and one says, "let me tell you about the personal relationship I have with The Great Labcoat in the sky."
This reminds me of some of my previous deist/borderline pantheist beliefs. Many historical western religious traditions assumed it was blasphemous to claim to know anything about the nature of God by methods other than negative ascription.