Deism is a religion that teaches one thing: Reason should be the basis of our beliefs, and reason leads us to believe in the existence of God. That is it. Nothing more is required to be a Deist. While most Deists have their own extended theology based on their reason, those ideas and concepts are not what makes them Deists. There is one belief in particular that is identified with Deism that is too often mistaken for the entirety of Deism: God does not interfere in the universe.
Here is a simple response: Deism is not the belief that God created the universe and stepped back from it and never interfered. No. NO. While Deists as a whole believe in significantly LESS intervention then theists, we do not necessarily believe in no intervention. We reject miracles and the like, not because we do not believe in intervention, but because we do not believe in the supernatural without proof.
This is a problem, because too many people, atheists and theists alike, use the following argument to disprove or discredit Deism:
Deism says God does not intervene
<Reasons why God would intervene in some way>
Therefore Deism is wrong.
If anyone uses that argument, whether or not you are a Deist, it is our responsibility to tell them that they are wrong. One of the main issues with religious debate is that we make too many false, or at least baseless, assumption about what other people believe. We cannot let people misrepresent any religion, and for Deists this means destroying this assumption about Deism.
Feel free to use any arguments against Deism that you want, as long as they don't falsely assume anything beyond what Deism really is.
Here is a simple response: Deism is not the belief that God created the universe and stepped back from it and never interfered. No. NO. While Deists as a whole believe in significantly LESS intervention then theists, we do not necessarily believe in no intervention. We reject miracles and the like, not because we do not believe in intervention, but because we do not believe in the supernatural without proof.
This is a problem, because too many people, atheists and theists alike, use the following argument to disprove or discredit Deism:
Deism says God does not intervene
<Reasons why God would intervene in some way>
Therefore Deism is wrong.
If anyone uses that argument, whether or not you are a Deist, it is our responsibility to tell them that they are wrong. One of the main issues with religious debate is that we make too many false, or at least baseless, assumption about what other people believe. We cannot let people misrepresent any religion, and for Deists this means destroying this assumption about Deism.
Feel free to use any arguments against Deism that you want, as long as they don't falsely assume anything beyond what Deism really is.
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