For a long time I walked the tight rope between Atheist and Agnostic, and I've never been a fan of organized religion of any kind (but that's not what this is about.) I've always done my research on religions and all that kind of stuff, because I'm not the kind of person who likes to be against something I know nothing about. Despite this, I had never heard of "deism" until a couple months ago, and I just attributed my beliefs to Agnosticism.
I believe that everything that is in the Universe, and all of the pieces that tie it together to make it what it is (physics, evolution, etc.), was created by something greater than the Universe, some higher power or being or something.
My reason for this, is that even though we have valid, evidenced theories about HOW the Universe was born, we don't know WHERE it came from. It seems like that is a question that very few scientists are even trying to answer.
Assuming a linear understanding of "time" as opposed to a circular one, you are always forced to question what was before whatever is commonly accepted as "the beginning." This is a question I don't think we'll ever truly know the answer to, and that is where I've decided to fill in the gaps with my own beliefs.
I believe that whoever or whatever was responsible for the creation of our Universe did JUST that, and then left it alone. No divine intervention, no divine miracles. That is not to say I'm entirely opposed to the supernatural (things such as ghosts) but I think if such things were real, there would be a valid scientific explanation for it, maybe something that we just haven't quite figured out yet.
The above beliefs make me a deist, and I didn't know it. I was just curious if there were other people here who had similar beliefs.
Time is intrinsically linked with mass according to standard relativistic theory, and was therefore created 10^–43 seconds after the Big Bang according to standard models.
Which means causality breaks down before 10^-43 seconds after the Big Bang, unless you happen to have a model of causality that doesn't use the one-way flow of time as an axiom. Food for thought.
i really like this, it is really difficult for me (science major) to accurately express my beliefs to my classmates with out being looked down on. It is en vogue right now to hate religion, but honestly I am of the opinion that the divisions between science and religion are not that extreme, one could say that evolution is god, for example.
Without going off on a rant, there are other beliefs, such as pantheism, the idea that the universe and its collective are literally god, a belief held by the late Carl Sagan.
I hope we can all realize that humanity has a lot of common goals, regardless of personal opinion
I became a deist during my 2nd year of high school. my AP european history teacher covered it in class and it seemed more plausible to me that someone created the universe then went off to play a never ending game of golf
It is pretty long (book length), but it has some very interesting arguments. Though you might want to read some background on the work before actually going into it blind.
Do I get it right: You believe in a god only because there is something you can't explain and that must be divine? That's how they did it with with the weather many years ago. They didn't know when there will be rain and when there will be sunshine and they thought it was arbitrary, so they thought a god controlled it and they have to prey to him to have good weather. Nowadays, we can't explain where the universe came from, so it must be created by a god. Do you see the parallels? *facepalm*
In such situations it is not sensible to inject your instinctive explanation in place of the knowledge gap. The answer could be anything, we do not have it. That is where it ends. When we do, we will know. Until then, it is a bad idea to start guessing.
Like seemingly a lot of people these days I only believe in what there is evidence to support. Though I don't dis-believe or have anything against any religion (because there is also no evidence to refute divine beings, assuming you don't nitpick ancient religious texts). I think this makes me agnostic?
As for your reasoning for being Deist, it seems to me that it raises the question of where that original deity came from. Unless you assume that matter requires an origin but divine beings do not, which, considering the inherent impossibility of understanding such an entity is not an unreasonable assumption to add.
I have my own theory as to where the matter in the universe came from, it's based on an arguably silly (and possibly downright inaccurate?) application of math. I think it's a fun subject to come up with answers to, religious or not.
I've considered deism and find myself fascinated by it. Logically, it makes sense. However I don't know if I can accept it. The universe is shockingly unorganized, and it has things in it that, while fascinating, serve little purpose. I think if anything the universe functions as a computer system. It has a maximum rate at which information can be exchanged (light speed) and it even has glitches that seem to violate standard laws (black holes).
Eh, I don't care much for explanations as to how, why, etc. the universe came into being. It's just simpler to think that shit happened and we all came into existence.
If humans have been struggling to explain how we all came into being via religion or science and if we STILL haven't figured it out, is it really worth the trouble? >_>
Nope I'm an atheist. I like some religions, like buddhism and daoism that don't really have the concept of god, especially not the naive "personal" god that many religions subscribe to. The way I approach it is, does belief in god really add any value to life? And to me the answer is no. I can enjoy the beauty of the universe without believing that something created it. and i don't have to worry about what created the creator.
as carl sagan said, if you want to argue that the creator always existed, just take it one step further. the universe always existed. god adds no value and is un-necessary. a belief in god actually takes away value, as anyone who has studied history can tell you.
When it comes down to it, the existence of life, consciousness and intelligence on an inhabitable planet is way too coincidental to be random. Yes, I believe in God.
On July 14 2011 16:26 Flameberger wrote: Like seemingly a lot of people these days I only believe in what there is evidence to support. Though I don't dis-believe or have anything against any religion (because there is also no evidence to refute divine beings, assuming you don't nitpick ancient religious texts). I think this makes me agnostic?
As for your reasoning for being Deist, it seems to me that it raises the question of where that original deity came from. Unless you assume that matter requires an origin but divine beings do not, which, considering the inherent impossibility of understanding such an entity is not an unreasonable assumption to add.
This makes you an atheist by most (accurate) definitions. Lacking a belief in a god/gods makes you an atheist, even if you don't take the extra step of making the claim that God does not exist.
It's like if I told you I had a million dollars in the trunk of my car. You wont believe it without evidence, but you can't be sure it isn't there. If you feel this way about God, you're an atheist. People will classify you as a "weak atheist," but you're still an atheist.
On July 14 2011 16:32 snotboogie wrote: When it comes down to it, the existence of life, consciousness and intelligence on an inhabitable planet is way too coincidental to be random. Yes, I believe in God.
Yeah what a concidence that life developed on an inhabitable planet. Wait, what?
On July 14 2011 16:22 LloydRays wrote: i really like this, it is really difficult for me (science major) to accurately express my beliefs to my classmates with out being looked down on. It is en vogue right now to hate religion, but honestly I am of the opinion that the divisions between science and religion are not that extreme, one could say that evolution is god, for example.
Without going off on a rant, there are other beliefs, such as pantheism, the idea that the universe and its collective are literally god, a belief held by the late Carl Sagan.
I hope we can all realize that humanity has a lot of common goals, regardless of personal opinion
You could only consider evolution "god" if you think that god is a concept. If you think that god is a being than it is impossible for evolution to be a god.
To the OP- 10^-43 power is 1/10^43rd of a second, ie time started when the big bang happened. You may consider yourself a deist or agnostic but if you want to go on scientific proof, their is an explanation for everything in this world, thus their is no proof of a higher power. Just food for thought.
EPT
