Why do Deists believe in Heaven?

[Heat]

I don't understand why so many Deists believe there's an afterlife. 

If all you believe is that God created you and then peaced the fuck out afterwards, never interacting with humanity again, why do you believe that after you die it will be anything more than what atheists believe happens after death? 


Even more implausible, how come it seems to me that there are so many deists that believe in heaven as the bible describes? There are so many different concepts of a "heaven" in all the other different religions alone, how could you possibly claim that you are a deist and believe that all is good after you die and you will go to heaven and do the exact same thing the Christians think they'll do.

Seems like the cop-out version of christianity, and other religious teachings honestly.
"Wouldn't it be great if I could still claim to be rational minded, got out of following or doing any of the bullshit in the bible, and still got 100% of the reward no matter what?"



[Disclaimer: Obviously I am not lumping all Deists in to this ideology, but a good majority have the same thought processing as this, except they wrap it up in a let-me-rephrase-so-i'm-not-wrong blanket]

[ApeNotKillApe]

Fear of death.

[robvalue]

Fear of death.

This is the probably the root cause for any afterlife belief, I agree.

I wonder if the package deal of God and an afterlife has been peddled so long and so hard by the major religions that people have trouble separating the concepts now. Maybe.

[ApeNotKillApe]

Fear of death.

This is the probably the root cause for any afterlife belief, I agree.

I wonder if the package deal of God and an afterlife has been peddled so long and so hard by the major religions that people have trouble separating the concepts now. Maybe.

It's the root of religious belief just as much as it's the root of all knowledge, invention and understanding; it's our desire to understand to what can't be understood.
Religion and astronomy were once inseparable, but now we understand what stars and planets actually are, while astrology is obviously still present, it's not THE source of knowledge when it comes to the firmament. Religion and death are much more difficult to separate, because no one can really get a first hand account of death, but we're getting very good with neurology, we understand very well by this point that consciousness is a biological process, not a supernatural phenomena, and that once the brain is dead, the person ceases to exist.

[robvalue]

The analogy was raised recently of God playing "the sims" and we have become aware somehow. I think it's a good one. An afterlife is the equivalent of the sim characters flying out of your computer game when they die and living with you. It makes no sense on any level.

[T.J.]

For some the idea of an afterlife can increase your fear, because now not only are you afraid of dying, you're afraid of suffering forever and ever after you die. If you think you're going to hell, that is.

Funny how so many believe they're going to heaven even after that whole 'narrow road' nonsense in their own holy book.

[Athene]

Well, let's face it...it's a nice, comforting thought to hang on to.  Deists are pretty rational overall, and easy enough to tolerate when compared to theists. They typically aren't try to sell you on whatever bullshit they believe; they may just need to hang on to that last bit of wishful thinking. A lot of them probably end up as atheists at some point, once they come to terms with the death issue.

Just before becoming an atheist, I was actually a Deist myself and I remained one for a period of 8 to 12 minutes before admitting the truth to myself.

[ApeNotKillApe]

Funny how so many believe they're going to heaven even after that whole 'narrow road' nonsense in their own holy book.

My father died when I was twelve, I was taken along to visit his mother a fortnight or so after he died, and I remember being at my Irish Catholic grandmother's house, sitting on the sofa next to my little sister. My grandmother, still grief-stricken, and more Irish than one should be at midday, bent down in front of us and said, "You know he's in a better place now, don't you?" 

We both nodded plaintively, we might have each mumbled a 'yes', but the first thought that went through my mind was, "No, he's in Hell."
I didn't think that because I hated him, but because I understood Christianity and my father well enough to know that there was no way he was getting into Heaven, he was not a good Christian, he constantly swore and blasphemed, it was one of his defining qualities. My grandmother's statement struck me as very dishonest, I came to understand that she wasn't trying to console me and my sister, she was consoling herself and unknowingly acting with a complete ignorance of her religion.  That was probably the moment that I became an anti theist, though I didn't know it at the time.

[robvalue]

For some the idea of an afterlife can increase your fear, because now not only are you afraid of dying, you're afraid of suffering forever and ever after you die. If you think you're going to hell, that is.

Funny how so many believe they're going to heaven even after that whole 'narrow road' nonsense in their own holy book.

I agree. The idea of living forever, no matter what I'd be doing, sounds unbearable. I'm perfectly happy having my go and then signing off. It just so happens to also be the only outcome supported by evidence.

[ignoramus]

My question is:
If a Deist believes God made us and pissed off, is he talking about the God of the bible? Or another god?
If another, again, they'll have to define god for us ? No-one up until now can?
Sounds like cherry picking of the highest order?

Or a Christian who can't handle the pressure of hell, has a brain fart and becomes a deist and all his fears disappear!