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Goodbye Jesus

Deism- Diet Christianity?


StarGazer

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Deism was a concept I honestly didn't realize existed, until my friend told me he was one. As stupid as it sounds, I'd figured Deists were just non-religious Christians. But now I'm aware of it all, I'm intensely fascinated.

 

It reminds me of 'Bruce Almighty'. That movie is very deistic, in a sense. I mean, there's no mention of Jesus, and Jennifer Aniston's character is vague in her religious beliefs, but prays every night.

 

Anyhooow, I was just wondering if anybody hear went from Christianity to Deism? For me, I started Deist then went to Catholic (After asking God which the right religion was....whilst leaving out Islam, because I really didn't want for my mind to tell me that was the right one GONZ9729CustomImage1539775.gif

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I called myself a deist for a while. Over time I gradually slipped away from positively thinking that there is a creator/designer/mind behind the universe. It could be true. But I no longer think that it must be true.

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I gave deism a try after I couldn't be a Christian anymore.  It worked for me for a while.

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Yeah, that is a fairly common part of the de-conversion process. I tried Deism for about a year after leaving Christianity. I eventually concluded there really isn't any difference between an absentee God & there being no God at all.

 

When a person leaves their religion it is natural for many people to seek another form of Spiritually & Deism is often an attractive option to fill that void. Some seek spirituality in nature and/or the universe, or meditation.

 

That search is often seen as an attempt to replace the lost God of their former religion. If that sort of thing helps fill a void & makes leaving religion easier then it has value.

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Deists are really just agnostics in denial. They want to believe in a God but are aware they don't know enough about "God" to clearly define his existence.

 

But this then brings up another problem - If we can't fit God in a definition, we also cannot be sure he exists.

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Deists are really just agnostics in denial. They want to believe in a God but are aware they don't know enough about "God" to clearly define his existence.

 

This is not strictly speaking true. There are many deists who use arguments and reason to arrive at their idea of God. Some such may want to believe, but there are others who honestly think that it's true, whether they like it or not. Anthony Flew was one such before he died.

 

As for how they define God, that depends on the deist. They may define him in a variety of different ways. But there really are authentic, reasonable deists in the world who are not just agnostics in denial.

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An inert God, with no application to human conduct, is a God who might as well not exist, and it is an hypothesis which serves no function in our thinking.  He might be real, just like an infinite number of other hypotheses, but he is better forgotten in favor of remember something worth knowing.  Better to shed thoughts that are not paying their way.

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     I was deist for a minute or two.  I wasn't ready to give up the whole god thing but was out of specific gods to dick around with.  It was just one more step some people take and others don't I guess.  But I realized pretty quickly that if there was a god that made things then just ran off and became indifferent then this was no different than no god at all from my perspective.  Maybe god made it then died?  Then who cares if a god made it?  Maybe a gnat farted and that's us.  No god at all.  It's all the same at this point.  We're still here.  The god becomes another metaphor for nature.  Nature made us and is indifferent so instead of bothering with terms like "god" that have baggage I tossed all that shit and went the science route.  Others like it and go the spirituality route.

 

          mwc

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I was a deist of and on for 2 years before I finally totally deconverted. What held me to believe in a god was the fear that if I left him totally I would fry in hell. Eventually I concluded that there was no hell and I quit my fear of judgment. It occurred to me that I was going to fry anyway for being a deist.

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I'm not sure if some of the "new age" concepts are deism or not. I've heard it expressed as "we are a pool of souls, incarnating here or there in groups, this planet or that, experiencing life in myriad forms, then returning to share what we've learned". Not sure I'd call that a god, more just looking for some kind of reason that we are here, and why some of us seem to recall being other people or beings. No real attempt at "where did the souls come from" etc.

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