Questions for Deists

[Paul the Human]

One of the reasons I stopped posting here is that I have pretty much lost interest in Christianity and its ilk. Christians, Muslims, blah blah, and yada yada. I looked pretty deeply into all of them (especially Christianity, being an American) in an attempt to understand. Well… what I learned is that all of it is so obviously bullshit that my focus turned to “why do people believe this crap?” Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the answer is, simply, “Because they want to”. From that point, it all got rather dull, as ‘believers’ do not/will not listen to reason.

I digress. I’m interested in Deism. No… I don’t believe in a creator deity. I am simply curious about what desists actually believe… and why. So, without further digression, here are a few questions for the deists.

1. Do you believe in the soul? If so, what do you believe it is and why?

2. Do you, in any way other than the existence of a deity, believe in anything that could be considered supernatural or paranormal?

3. The creator deity, ‘God’ if you will, is the “first cause”… or “He who Banged Big”, if I understand correctly. So… where did it stop? What did God create? (The universe? Space-time? Earth? Man?, etc) For example, did God cause the Big Bang and then conduct (like an orchestra) the formation of the universe? Or… what?

4. Is God still… out there? If so, does it pay any attention to what it wrought? If not… what do you think it’s doing? If so… elaborate?

5. Does God know we exist? Does it care?

6. Is God the only one of its kind?

7. Why do you believe, if there were a ‘first cause’, that it must be an intelligence?

8. Do you believe that it created with intent? Or did a ‘being’ that existed before everything else… suddenly sneeze?

That’s enough for now. I have no doubt that your answers will raise further questions.

[Darth]

I'll answer, though I know longer hold those beliefs, (Pandeism) (For the sake of simplicity I shall leave it at that for now, I did make another thread that examines the different types http://atheistforums.org/thread-7343.html and where cj and dp also answered a couple of these (Though certainly not all))

1.No I didn't. I did see the potential for life after death, but only in that if my knowledge became the deities knowledge, I was in some way existing.
2. Saw a ghost a few years back that scared me absolutely shitless (sleep paralysis). Aside from a sleepless night or two no I didn't.

Lets not call it 'God' yeah? The deistic god is no Yahweh the Malevolent.

3. Well the god I believed in didn't orchestrate it once it had started, it was in no position to be able to.
4. Pandeists believe that the deity created the universe, by becoming the universe. Some propose suicide, some propose a learning experience. Was agnostic about it myself. Believed both at different points.
5. Care about people as individuals? Some 'learning expieriencists' might claim that not initially no, learning that was sorta part of the whole point.
6. I think a more accurate description of deism is "at least one god created the universe" rather than "One god created...". You wont find many deists who claim one and only one, not in my experience anyway.
7. Yup, cosmic anthropic principle.
8. Always enjoyed what i call 'accidental deism'. Sorta pointless idea though imo.

[Paul the Human]

Thanks for answering, Stue. I just find myself a little curious about it lately is all. I'm familiar with the concept of deism, but I have never actually done any digging to see what it is that deists actually believe and/or why. I know that they believe that an intelligence of 'some kind' created the universe 'somehow'... but that's all I really know beyond the famous Dawkins quote.

Christians, in my experience, have a 100% failure rate when it comes to providing a valid reason to believe that their god actually exists. I guess I'm wondering if a deist can fare any better on that count.