Are you a Deist or....

[Kerbouchard]

do you at least have some Deist tendencies?

I grew up in a family that believed in God but going to church was done in spurts. Never missing to hardly going. Then I became very religious, very involved, mission work, etc. My very conservative denominational family was perfect for a time. But I kept seeing that we made very hard black and white arguments on some things but at the same time I saw that those we disagreed with also had valid arguments against us.

With much reading and exposure to other Christian faiths I became a liberal in a conservative church. And I kept finding that some of my pat answers were intellectually dishonest. So I stared toying with the idea that maybe God does not act in our world or if he does it is rarely. I saw believers and non-believers get sick and die. I saw believers and non-believers get sick and get well. (I am well aware of Jesus' comment in Matthew about the rain on the just and the unjust.) Anyway, to end my anecdotal rant, I now question if God works in this world anymore or not. (And I realize some of you do not even believe in God so no need to respond.) If I lose my job, it's 100% my responsibility to find another one; if my kid gets sick and dies, it's not 'God calling them home', it's that they got sick and died; if the economy goes tits up, it's not God calling down judgment on us, it will be because of poor choices we have made; etc.

Your thoughts?

 

[wedgie]

Want to respond but have to keep it short. My view of Deism is that God's plan was put in order and thus what was going to happen will happen. If I want to be responsible for my actions it was already ordained to be so.

I live my life based on existentialism. Not in the fact that life sucks so just deal with it but rather from a mind set to be responsible for my actions. Being responsible for my actions leads to a good life, or not whining about the one I already have.

 

[NBMisha]

I sometimes appeal to the football gods. Sometimes it works. Obviously, not always. Or perhaps, my supplication was not worthy.

 

[Coelacanth]

For some reason your post recalls Bob Seger for me...

I guess I lost my way,
There were oh so many roads.

Becoming aware of a variety of "valid arguments" is perhaps a stage of development, but it's not an ideological or a theological destination. I'm not sure if it's true for you or not -- although the 1st part of your post seems to suggest that it is -- but I do think that for many people, they learn just enough to see the vast complexity of the ideas at play. And rather than accepting that complexity and dedicating their spiritual lives to working through it, they decide instead that it must be too thick and too obscure to ever yield a solid conclusion. Either they are lazy, or they lack the ability, or they are simply too busy to work through these seemingly valid arguments, to discover which are truly valid and which only seem to be valid.

I agree with deists that rationalism can teach us some truths -- perhaps many truths -- about God. I'm a great fan of such exercises. But it can teach us very little, if anything, about salvation, which is entirely irrational.