Why are deists so annoying?

[Napoléon]

I will say your charge of intellectual dishonesty is unfounded unless you can elaborate any further. I've double checked the definition of intellectual honesty and I seem to check all the boxes.

You're intellectually dishonest because you know yourself your beliefs are unfounded. (I'd like to stress this is just what I think, I know deists have gotten pissy with me before when I've used the intellectual dishonesty route, if you feel perfectly justified in your belief, then you're not being intellectually dishonest, I just don't understand what justifies that belief).

I guess it's not intellectual dishonesty in the typical 'fallacy' sense. But, I guess it's more you believing in something even though you have no rational reason to.

You said yourself "Maybe it's just the way my brain is wired. God gene anyone? Or perhaps my instincts are on to something. Who knows?" To me, it just seems like you want to believe. Rather than you have actual reason to.

Maybe my view has been tarnished by the interactions I've had in the past with deists, but, it usually does boil down to "wanting to believe". And this is why I don't think you're being honest with yourself. Can you honestly say it's perfectly rational to have a belief in god/some other first cause? If it's not rational, and from pretty much every interaction I've had the deist will admit that, then how do you justify your belief? This is always where the explanations break down. This is where I think the intellectual dishonesty lies. The only difference IMHO between you and me is that I can admit there is no rational reason to believe in god, and I'm fine with that, and I don't believe. Deists don't seem to want to let go of that optimism/hope that there is something more, even though it's completely unfounded.