Why are deists so annoying?

[DeistPaladin]

But that was not the point. To me the similarity is striking. Just a god who created and stopped intervening at some point. So I wonder how common this view of god was in history.
Did it arise anywhere else?

I tried finding information on deistic ideas forming in other cultures, but couldn't find any. So I suspect the deistic god is in a way biblegod stripped down all the way to next to nothing. I'm no expert though.

Not so much stopped intervening as we simply don't know and all evidence to the contrary.

Although, when I studied just how close we've come to mutual annihilation and not gone over that edge (the last close call was in 1995), it was almost enough to make me think there might be some sort of friendly god watching over us. Almost.

The cartoon Futurerama did explore the issue some when Bender meets with God after unsuccessfully playing the role himself. (Look, philosophy is where you find it!) Too much intervention and your creation becomes dependent. Too little and your creation may die. The right amount, as "God" told Bender, is where they don't know you've done anything at all. I'm not saying I believe this. The writers of Futurerama are atheists, AFAIK. But it was thought provoking.

As for deism, I'm sure deist-ish ideas have been around as long as religion has. Galileo was not exactly a deist per se but he evoked the philosophy when he said (paraphrased as I don't have the quote in front of me), "I refuse to believe in a God that endowed me with sense and reason only to forbid me to their use."

Some atheists in my local community once remarked that deism had a more Far Eastern take on God, less the fire-and-brimstone and more the journey and progress toward enlightenment.

In the west, Deism is traced back to the 16th century. Early deists were essentially watered-down Christians who drew their inspiration from the earlier discoveries in science. They didn't deny the divinity of Christ (or, I think, were smart enough not to do so publicly since Christians still burned heretics at the stake) but this was the beginning of looking to the natural world rather than scripture and tradition for spiritual inspiration. Christianity made its break with rejecting Christianity and the Bible with Thomas Paine (not coincidentally, I maintain, at the same time the Christian terror on intellectuals was broken).

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That's basically deism. Most boring conversation piece in the history of the world.

Some atheists who are fans of my videos ask me why I never make any on the subject of deism, as contrasted with atheism. This is one of *many* reasons.

That said, we do get to identify with great thinkers of history who had fantastic hair!