Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Postcards From...?

There are several aspects of deism that I could halfway accept -- the emphasis on rationality, observable laws of nature, and the fact that beings are responsible for their own salvation. According to the World Union of Deists, deism is defined as:
Deism is the recognition of a universal creative force greater than that demonstrated by mankind, supported by personal observation of laws and designs in nature and the universe, perpetuated and validated by the innate ability of human reason coupled with the rejection of claims made by individuals and organized religions of having received special divine revelation.
In its discussion of God, Wikipedia reports:
Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent: God exists, but does not intervene in the world beyond what was necessary to create it. In this view, God is not anthropomorphic, and does not literally answer prayers or cause miracles to occur. Common in Deism is a belief that God has no interest in humanity and may not even be aware of humanity.
This is all well and good, but it leads me to one particular question: What is "God" up to now? If this entity created the world and then left it to its own devices, where did it go and what is it doing? Is it off creating other realms of reality? Is it hobnobbing with other supreme entities? Like a salmon, did it create our existence as a final act before dying?

What?

4 comments:

  1. Deism is the recognition of a universal creative forcePersonally, the only form of "deism" I've ever felt comfortable with is a non-deist one.

    I like the idea that what people have always referred to as God is actually ourselves: the union of all of things perceptible.

    There is a lot of NATURAL power in the union of anything.

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  2. I think that's why I probably lean more toward pantheism, and see God is all-that-is, and being all-that-is is what God does.

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  3. good thing i'm not a deist. otherwise i'd probably have trouble with those questions.

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  4. Lorena,
    I could buy into to that!

    Amy,
    I just posted info about pantheism in a post. I lean that way too.

    Tye,
    Good thing. :)

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