Hello

[DeistPaladin]

Thanks, DeistPaladin. That was a great explanation. We do seem to believe (basically) the same things, with one glaring exception. Heheh. I like to put things in a nutshell to see if I understand correctly, so here goes...

When it comes the existence of a deity part, you basically believe in the 'Einsteinian God', except that you go one step further and attribute sentience and conscious intent to it. In essence, turning it into an actual 'being'. Is that correct? (I am simply asking, not trying to start a debate or anything)

As a deist, is it correct to assume that you believe this deity created the universe and then never interacted with it? Do you have theories as to why? Is he gone? Is he simply watching?

Let me start by saying that you need not tread lightly when asking about what I believe. A lot of curious atheists seem to, for good reason I think, given my own experiences with angry Christians. I hypothesize that if someone really believes something, they don't get angry about it.

I have a video on the "hurt feelings" card going into more detail that I suddenly feel the need to share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-T4FN1xqB0

But getting back to your questions, yes, your observation is correct that my idea of God is much closer to those of Einstein, Spinoza and Hawking than it is to the one of Moses, Paul or Muhammad. I also quote various well-known atheists on my own website regarding the shared sense of awe of the universe. Sagan, Dawkins and even the gloomy Hitchens have expressed such sentiments.

Given the size and time-scale involved, I'm inclined to think that a being that sets it in motion would be to us like a scientist is to bacteria cells cultivated in a petri dish. Dawkins has talked about how believers want a "little god, a petty god" because the scale implied by the universe doesn't easily permit the personal god. And I don't know that God has never interfered with our development. A lot came together in the evolution of our minds. We might have been cultivated. If you're familiar with "Babylon 5", like the Vorlons did with telepaths.

Of course, all this is speculation. It's just that I see the universe as a machine that "must" have some mysterious mind behind it, one that is beyond our current comprehension. I put the "must" in quotes because I realize I could be completely deluded here. One indication might be if there's a lot of intelligent life elsewhere. For the deist model to hold (or my version of God as the scientist cultivating life), I would expect to find that we're not the only ones. If it is just us, it looks increasingly like earth just won the "cosmic lottery" and we were lucky to get this far.