American comedian Jeff Foxworthy became famous for making fun of himself and others he refers to as Rednecks. With several fellow comedians , Jeff started the Blue Collar Comedy Tour . The theme of their act is, “You are a Redneck if you …………”
As many of you know, since I started blogging , I have referred to myself as a Deist. I thought I would start my very first post by saying , “You might be a Deist if you …….” My fellow blogger and friend Arkenaten is the one who encouraged me to do a post of my own. Well here goes nothing . 🙂
You are a Deist if …………..
Critical elements of deist thought included:
- Rejection of religions based on books that claim to contain the revealed word of God.
- Rejection of religious dogma and demagogy.
- Skepticism of reports of miracles, prophecies and religious “mysteries”.
Constructive elements of deist thought included:
- God exists and created the universe.
- God gave humans the ability to reason.
Deism (
i/ˈdiː.ɪzəm/[1][2] or /ˈdeɪ.ɪzəm/) is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a Creator, accompanied with the rejection of revelation and authority as a source of religious knowledge.[3][4][5][6][7] Deism gained prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment—especially in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States—among intellectuals raised as Christians who believed in one god, but found fault with organized religion and did not believe in supernatural events such as miracles, the inerrancy of scriptures, or the Trinity.[8]
There seems to be a clear line drawn in the sand dividing Theists and Atheists. Could some of these people actually be Deists like me as I have defined above ?
The Divine Spark Within 
First off, I like the camel, the Pyramid and the desert.
Goes with my persona very nicely. 🙂
The major difficulty I see with deism is it falls ”just a step to the right” ( thank you Time Warp) of agnosticism, and as Mrs Thatcher was once reported as saying, if you stand in the middle of the road you get run over by traffic coming from both directions.
And then of course, you are still faced with the problem of explaining your deity ,if not to others at least to yourself.
Then again, maybe there is no need to explain it?
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Thank you for your comments Ark. I too have a problem with the word “Deity” myself. Maybe I am an Eist ? 🙂 What I really believe is a “Cause for the Effect” . I know Stephen Hawking has come to the conclusion that the universe didn’t need a “Cause” . If this is true, then we needn’t wonder as Deists and Theists where the “Creator” came from. If Atheists agree with Mr Hawking , does this totally satisfy their “Desire to know” ?
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As a “Side Bar”, I hope you realize Mr Ark, I chose this background because I have stood in front of the Pyramids and considered my trip to Egypt in 2008 a real “Eye Opener” in realizing that cultures definitely borrowed religious myths from each other. Not trying to be a copy cat but glad you liked my choice of backgrounds. 🙂
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Yes, Ken, I did work out the reason for the choice of background 🙂
I don’t actually have a burning desire to know. I am a great believer in everything has a time. Knowledge is no different.
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But it’s me who doesn’t have enough time. 🙂
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Ah…well then, when that time comes( or runs out) then you will have your answer…one way or another, right?
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Great first post!
I think I’ve mentioned to you before that I spent some time as a deist myself. I think it’s a perfectly valid position. I wish more Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc would consider it. It would still allow them to maintain their belief in God, but it would shed all the problematic scriptures and doctrines that only serve to divide people.
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But then there would probably be wars over the sex of this god. 😉
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Or wars over sex with god. 🙂
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I didn’t know you had a blog Ken! I like the look as well. It is very aesthetically pleasing, and I am hoping someday my family and I will get to visit Egypt as well.
I have absolutely no argument whatsoever with deism. I don’t see any reasons to because I see it as a possibility that I just won’t be able to figure out the truth of (given what I have currently read of course), and it’s belief doesn’t seem to have any bad effects on important things like how people treat each other or on how we pursue the truth in science and other fields of study. In some ways I think it may possibly have positive effects on those things.
While I am not currently a deist, if I ever were to conclude that theism had validity to it, some form of deism is one of several categories I could see myself likely fitting into. Universalism, panentheism or pantheism are some others (although pantheism seems like a glorified atheism to me though).
Good luck with your blog. Looking forward to reading more.
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Thanks Howie ! I always appreciate reading your comments on Nate’s Blog. I can tell you think before you write. A virtue not all of us have. 🙂
The best to you !
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Thanks Ken! My uncle recently told me that when I was a kid he would always have to wait a few seconds after he asked me any questions because I always had to think for a bit before responding. I think that’s a quirk I’ve had all my life. It’s not always that great, because a lot of times the blog conversations have already moved way beyond the comment that I have thought about writing! 😉
I always get a lot out of what you write on Nate’s blog as well – you always seem to have a level headed and kind perspective.
By the way, not sure if you’ve already done this or not, but have you thought about writing a post listing all of the famous people who have been deists. I was always under the impression (although not sure how true) that a lot of the great thinkers of the enlightenment period were deists.
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Great idea, Howie ! I actually have a book written about the Fathers of our Country which lists many of the founding fathers as deists instead of Christians.. I will start there first.
Even though I claim to be a Deist, it’s mostly because I believe that every effect has a cause. I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around the Big Bang not having an effect like Stephen Hawking is now claiming. And yet, I don’t buy into the creation story in Genesis either.
I try to remain open to the evidence that makes the most sense. I have no problem with the Big Bang, but I keep thinking there had to be a cause. I would be OK knowing if this cause wasn’t a God.
Thanks again for the suggestion !
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I like that open minded perspective. I stay open minded to a lot of these deep questions myself. That’s one thing I’ve always liked about deists – they never seem very dogmatic about beliefs, and freedom of and from religion have always been a big part of it’s history.
I’ve read that some of the political leaders of that time may have been deists because they felt it was good for the “masses” to hold on to some kind of theistic belief, but I do believe that some of them truly felt deep down that we all had unalienable rights that were somehow derived from a creator.
As far as Big Bang goes there really are a lot of theories about it right now that do not assume that space-time began at the Big Bang. What seems to be consensus is that there was an inflationary period a very short time after the Big Bang, but the cause (if there was one) is up for debate. Roger Penrose has a theory labelled CCC (you can google it) that seems to believe that when universes expand out they end up finally creating new universes, and that this happens over and over again (I’m probably bastardizing his theory, but I saw a video with him describing something like that). There are several of other hypotheses I’ve found in articles on the web.
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You’ve given me food for thought ! Thanks !
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