I am married to a deist---sounds like the title to a true confessions novel. In his case it's a gut feeling that there is something divine behind it all plus a sure knowledge that that something does not spend it's time meddling in the day to day affairs of people, and that it isn't any of the absurd gods people have created to represent it. His idea of god is so abstract and disinterested that it's existence is not a hypothesis that can be tested or indeed makes any real difference to the world. And yes he's aware that it's a gut feeling, not "knowledge." It's not the sort of belief that is troubled by atheism in his nearest and dearest. And his deism doesn't bother me.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.