Deism

Deism is a religious philosophy that defines God based on reason and personal experience. Typically, Deists reject the supernatural and view God as a creator / intelligence who does not interfere with his/her creation. They also feel that the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon humanity is reason not religion. There have been several famous deists including: Albert Einstein (sort of), James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine and most recently Anthony Flew (until recently lifelong atheist philosopher)

My view of Deism is that it is the most "science friendly" theistic belief system. This is because it does not posit any miraculous Earthly interactions with the exception of the initial creation event itself. Also, it is very broad in that anyone that believes in an ultimate power / intelligence can claim to be a Deist.

In my opinion, the fact that it is not very organized can be both a virtue and a vice. No organization leads to less people hijacking Deism for their own personal agenda as we see with other more organized religions (you won't find any Deist televangelists). Also, since it is not exclusive there are no attempts at conversion or retention. Also, no organization leads to Deism being a more personal philosophy than an belief system. Some problems with Deism being not organized is that it has a tendency to die out since there is nothing to "sustain" it. Also, there is no doctrine to follow. Some Deists believe in an afterlife and some do not. Some think that the initial creator God will punish wrong doing and some do not. This may be appealing to some but if it is this subjective and everything is based on your personal opinion...why the need for a label?

There are other appealing things that Deism can offer those looking for a belief system. Several classical problems with other more traditional religions do not apply to Deism in general. The problem of evil (which I plan to cover in a later post) does not play a role in Deism since God either does not have the ability or chooses not to interfere with his creation. The argument of the exclusivity of organized religions also does not apply since Deism is more a philosophy than an organized belief system.

However, there are also several things about Deism that I feel are lacking. Its relativism strikes me as the first problem, although some may view this as a strength. The opinions on the afterlife is another example. Some Deists believe that there is an afterlife with judgment while others do not. What about objective morals? Do they exist? This leaves a lot of open territory for relativistic thought. I will use an extreme example to illustrate my point. Some Deists may feel that killing kittens is morally wrong while others feel that it is perfectly fine with it. Who is correct? At least with Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism moral values are objective and known. I know that some don't like the structure and exclusivity of organized religion but in some instances it is warranted (once again more on this in a later post). Some reasons for believing in a personal creator (we are personal, we create, we love, etc.) are also, in general, not satisfied by Deism. Why are we the way we are? An impersonal God does not really answer this question.

Also, if one is able to make the jump from atheism to deism....traditional theism is not too big of a leap. This is why Deism is sometimes viewed as a sort of stopping point to either traditional theism or atheism depending on the original starting point.