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Permalink Reply by Adriana on June 6, 2012 at 5:20pm

Deism is pretty innocuous, especially compared to the concept of a personal god who is an interventionist :-) Deism does not require a religion. I don't think it is an elegant belief system, because the immediate question is who or what created the creator? It's the god of the gaps concept basically. 

I don't want to burst your bubble, but I think deism would not adequately replace current theism because people are really into religion because they WANT a personal god. Most people only superficially care or say they care about who created the universe; most people care about believing there is an afterlife where they will live forever with their loved ones if the follow certain rules. Most people want their god to guide the surgeon's hand when their health is in danger; most people want their god to help the quarterback of their team make the most judicious, accurate pass, etc. Religion exists mostly because of people's fear of death and suffering, not as an explanation for how the universe came to be. People want a god who is their big sky-daddy.

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Permalink Reply by Michel on June 6, 2012 at 5:54pm

I'm with Adriana here.

And I will add that many people cling to an interventionist god in the hope of eventual justice, even if only in another life, however hypothetical. The "life's a bitch and then you die" paradigm doesn't work for them, they can't digest the unfairness of it all and they long for justice.

A remote creator-only god does not solve this problem for them.

Deism would probably only work on the "institutionalized" religious that are disaffected and are in reality deists that don't know it yet.

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