(July 23, 2014 at 3:20 pm)Rabb Allah Wrote:(July 23, 2014 at 2:33 pm)Blackout Wrote: We could argue about buddhism being a religion without the theistic god. That is not my question. My question is, how many people believe in the theist god without following a religion? And how many would believe if they were not educated to do so? Most people who believe in a higher spiritual force without following a particular religion are some kind of deists, or pantheists, or sometimes people who simply believe in a spiritual mystical force. Very few people who don't follow a religion worship a theistic god type with the 4 classical characteristics and powers. And why do people believe in a god with the theist characteristics without following a religion?
I know of many people who believe in a theistic god without a religion. Being a proud mushrik I encounter all sorts of people in the neo-pagan community and paganism is just a collective term for liberal theologies centered around polytheism and European culture. Liberal theology is more honest you can say since people are admitting to subjectivity and divine claims being relevant to each other.
The main reason why people follow a classical theistic god without religion is the feeling of liberation and attachment to theism. Theism predates religion as we all know, again I point to pagans and polytheists as an example. Liberal theists are no different and they want the emotional appeal of having somebody over them or filling their ignorance of the world with something special and unique.
Because of this whole New Thought and New Age movement Oprah has helped hurl into the spot light. Being a theists and a liberal one at that is becoming an evidential norm and it helps people to fit in. Atheism is not popular and liberal theism gives freedom and normality to people's lives. Atheism is seen as a form of defeat and I have experienced this first hand when I was a deist.
There are so many reasons why people become liberal theists and I cannot possibly imagine all of them
I agree, but why a theist? Why not a deist? If I wanted to believe in a god without following the dogmas of all religions, I'd prefer the deist preposition since it gives me freewill. Theism always has the problem of god intervening with the world constantly. If you ask all people what god means, everyone will give a different answer
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
