Deism is the belief in God outside of religion. Feel free to ask.

Is that what they taught you in school? That one sentence (few words sef) is a definition. Abeg if you're not giving the long story followed by "this simply means that" then you're not qualified to be asked anything

storge:
Is that what they taught you in school? That one sentence (few words sef) is a definition. Abeg if you're not giving the long story followed by "this simply means that" then you're not qualified to be asked anything

This is the Internet and there's too much information. Sometimes you keep posts short to garner interests.

And I have time needs for other things too.

What's the difference between your idea of god and no god?

My journey to atheism started from deism to being agnostic...
It was only later I realised I was only a deist because I couldn't just let go the god-did-it paradigm.

I also realised that being agnostic was because I have not gotten the balls to identify as an atheist or to accept reality.

But later, I started embracing reality and becoming more honest to myself. I began to care less about the misconception the society have about atheist.

So tell me, why does deism make sense to you? Why do you still cling to god-did-it even as you have no evidence?

Why not somethingElse-did-it? Why no other possibilities? Why do you think there just must be a god?

UyiIredia:
Deism is the belief in God outside of religion. Feel free to ask.

why do you think it is wrong to be part of a religion group , either structured or unstructured

hopefulLandlord:
What's the difference between your idea of god and no god?

I believe God as people generally know. Creator of the universe, omnipotent and omniscient, eternal etc. But I just can't accept there is no God. It doesn't make sense to me, though I see why atheists accept it. I read on it and there was an influence. Deists like atheists reject religious belief that Hod has this guy you must worship, or set or moral laws he has revealed must be followed. etc. There is nuance there because some deists accepts things in religion like miracles, supernatural stuff etc. what they DON'T do is say God sanctioned it for everyone to follow.

No God means no God, and then no religion, exceptones that don't bother about God.

chemystery:
My journey to atheism started from deism to being agnostic...
It was only later I realised I was only a deist because I couldn't just let go the god-did-it paradigm.

I also realised that being agnostic was because I have not gotten the balls to identify as an atheist or to accept reality.

But later, I started embracing reality and becoming more honest to myself. I began to care less about the misconception the society have about atheist.?

Noted dear.

chemystery:
So tell me why does deism sense to you??

I used to be Christian and flip-flopped given a memtal illness but the conversion was thorough. Even more so now. To convert me on an intellectual level that a religion is true like atheists I will demand hard evidence of God saying so. Otherwise, I just see men talking. True, religion has good bits and stuff I agree with but my mind is let God speak in a way to clear the air. Oton! N

But atheism couldn't convince me of no God because of the arguments for God from the human mind and intelligemt design of life seem to me too strong to counter.

chemystery:

Why do you still cling to god-did-it even as you have no evidence? ?

The evidence you want is God coming is some physicsl way like speaking thrpugh clouds or using flying angels etc cosmic miracles tomdo so and perform creation. Atheists want hard evidence for God. I don't. I think the indirect evidence is strong enough. God will show up if and when he wants to. Some deists say he never will.

chemystery:

Why not somethingElse-did-it??

There's only God did it or Nature did it itself. We'll get into ling arguments I want to avoid but. I have written lits of answer on Quora and Nairaland on why I believe in God.

[https://www.quora.com/quote author=chemystery post=65442701]
Why no other possibilities? Why do you think there just must be a god?[/quote]

Same as above. And more in my Quora answers on atheism and God.

vaxx:
why do you think it is wrong to be part of a religion group , either structured or unstructured

The problem is not with being in a group, the problem is the religion group believes. Religion says there is a way God has made for man to follow, only men are talking. Let God himself talk in a supernatural way no man could have done and clear the air and doubt.

The major problem I have with religion is that it puts an infinite God in a box. God created everything plus evil and the Devil, yet religion will say God is not evil only good. How can evil exist without God then? Religion will say so-so-and-so is a sin. If you said it's wrong, okay, but how am I sure that's God's mind. I only see the man talking. Mentally ill people can believe they are God or sent of God, I have been like that. So only something undeniably supernatural and even universal will convince me otherwise. Even if something supernatural comes to me my thinking now would be: why did God tell only me to tell others? Why not tell everybody since some may doubt me and have a right to hear from God Himself?

UyiIredia:


I believe God as people generally know. Creator of the universe, omnipotent and omniscient, eternal etc. But I just can't accept there is no God. It doesn't make sense to me, though I see why atheists accept it. I read on it and there was an influence. Deists like atheists reject religious belief that Hod has this guy you must worship, or set or moral laws he has revealed must be followed. etc. There is nuance there because some deists accepts things in religion like miracles, supernatural stuff etc. what they DON'T do is say God sanctioned it for everyone to follow.

No God means no God, and then no religion, exceptones that don't bother about God.

What purpose does deism serve to you or humanity at large?

Epositive:

What purpose does deism serve to you or humanity at large?

People want to know the truth about how the world is, if there is a God, if there's religion God sanctioned etc. Deism fills a need, like science and religion, even atheism to know the truth. It's just that were are like the 7 blind men and the elephant. Deism allows one draw from religious meaning with no compulsions. Some deists just like the person of Jesus even if they don't accept He is God and they like how the Christian culture is even if they don't accept tenets. There is some leeway there.

But many religious people I'm sure are uncomfortable with the idea that a living God condemns someone to hell for not believing. Deism condemns no one to hell. Deists believe in a God to big too care about religious differences which he made in the first place. We just let God be God.

following

chemystery:
My journey to atheism started from deism to being agnostic...
It was only later I realised I was only a deist because I couldn't just let go the god-did-it paradigm.

I also realised that being agnostic was because I have not gotten the balls to identify as an atheist or to accept reality.

But later, I started embracing reality and becoming more honest to myself. I began to care less about the misconception the society have about atheist.

So tell me, why does deism make sense to you? Why do you still cling to god-did-it even as you have no evidence?

Why not somethingElse-did-it? Why no other possibilities? Why do you think there just must be a god?

Okay bro... This is how I understand things to be about being feeling there is God.... Looking at it from every corner of the world... A lot of beliefs, but there is one thing in common of all ... GOD... We're a being with this instinct of feeling there is someone somewhere that has created everything... Even though we have different imaginations.

Okay... Take for instance, this movie, "The gods must be crazy" those bush guys believe there is someone over everything even when nobody has tell them, the feeling that there is God is constant in everybody brain regardless of tribes culture or color.. There is God.

Religions are man-made, But their goals are the same... Which is to serve God.

UyiIredia:


The problem is not with being in a group, the problem is the religion group believes. Religion says there is a way God has made for man to follow, only men are talking. Let God himself talk in a supernatural way no man could have done and clear the air and doubt.

The major problem I have with religion is that it puts an infinite God in a box. God created everything plus evil and the Devil, yet religion will say God is not evil only good. How can evil exist without God then? Religion will say so-so-and-so is a sin. If you said it's wrong, okay, but how am I sure that's God's mind. I only see the man talking. Mentally ill people can believe they are God or sent of God, I have been like that. So only something undeniably supernatural and even universal will convince me otherwise. Even if something supernatural comes to me my thinking now would be: why did God tell only me to tell others? Why not tell everybody since some may doubt me and have a right to hear from God Himself?

But this is not a logical proposition , religion itself, is a human construct to transcend with GOD therefore it can contain some flawed just like men are flawed. however that dose not make religion illogical or something not worth embracing... you forget the basic value of religion, which is much important to the society development... for example will you cancel the use of car due to common road accidents. what I expect You to do is to concentrate to avoid the accidents. similarly, some students might have copied in the examinations. Try to catch, such students. But, do not remove the system of examination itself.

The system of religion serves majority well, doing lot of good. You forget the vast positive side of the system based on the minor negative side. The concept of religion controls the negative influence in the society. If the concept of religion is removed, lot of people will do lot of shits since already the ways to escape the punishment in courts are already available..... The society will be crushed into pieces in the absence of the fear for sin and abomination. If religion disappears, fear will disappear subsequently.The concept of abomination will drown and destroy the society like Ebola virus. and hence back track human development.

what the pastor , imam or babalawo says does not hold your future, you determine your own destiny, remember you are part of the universe in a never ending symbiotic relationship so a sense of group and belonging is the only way we can keep mother earth.... united we stand , divided will fall.

Note...Not all religion subscribe to the concept of devil and GOD

UyiIredia:



Noted dear.




I used to be Christian and flip-flopped given a memtal illness but the conversion was thorough. Even more so now. To convert me on an intellectual level that a religion is true like atheists I will demand hard evidence of God saying so. Otherwise, I just see men talking. True, religion has good bits and stuff I agree with but my mind is let God speak in a way to clear the air. Oton! N

But atheism couldn't convince me of no God because of the arguments for God from the human mind and intelligemt design of life seem to me too strong to counter.

Atheism is not there to convince anyone that there is no god. It is just a position held because those who claimed there is god have no single evidence of any. Imagine if there weren't a single proof that the earth is spherical. Majority of the world would still think the earth is flat. After all, it is evident all around us that we are standing and walking on flat surface. You will even hear questions like "If the earth is spherical, then why are those on the bottom side not falling off?". And of course, this would sound logical! You are talking about intelligent design as the proof for god. So, how would an unintelligent design look like? Is god undesigned, intelligently or unintelligently designed? If he is undesigned, why can't we say so for humans? If he is intelligently designed, isn't that a proof that god also was created?

We will be committing special pleading fallacy if we agree without proof that an intelligent being like human was created by a higher intelligent being known as god who wasn't created by a yet higher intelligent being.

The evidence you want is God coming is some physicsl way like speaking thrpugh clouds or using flying angels etc cosmic miracles tomdo so and perform creation. Atheists want hard evidence for God. I don't. I think the indirect evidence is strong enough. God will show up if and when he wants to. Some deists say he never will.

Atheist want evidence for god. Be it hard or soft, evidence is evidence. What will have as evidence for god can as well fit as evidence for something else. For instance, if you say intelligent design is evidence for god? I can also say intelligent design is evidence for tyuyji (I don't even know what it is). But the fact is your answer for god, and my answer for tyuyji are just equiprobable.

The fact is there is no single evidence god created man, but there are numerous evidence that man created gods. Just like the way I created tyuyji and claimed without evidence that he intelligently designed man, is same way men had created gods and also claimed they created man.

There's only God did it or Nature did it itself. We'll get into ling arguments I want to avoid but. I have written lits of answer on Quora and Nairaland on why I believe in God.

[https://www.quora.com/quote author=chemystery post=65442701]
Why no other possibilities? Why do you think there just must be a god?

Same as above. And more in my Quora answers on atheism and God.

You mean there are just two options of either god did it, or nature did it? Do you mean god didn't create nature? Well, the fact is there are endless possibilities how all these around us came into existence. Anyone can just wake up and come up with any idea about how we came into existence. The concept of god invented by ancient cavemen has been one of these ideas that have stick for so long even though there is no single evidence such entity called god exists. It has made the world to stop asking questions or seek for other possibilities. It has made many satisfied with not understanding the mysteries surrounding the world.

UyiIredia:


I believe God as people generally know. Creator of the universe, omnipotent and omniscient, eternal etc. But I just can't accept there is no God. It doesn't make sense to me, though I see why atheists accept it. I read on it and there was an influence. Deists like atheists reject religious belief that Hod has this guy you must worship, or set or moral laws he has revealed must be followed. etc. There is nuance there because some deists accepts things in religion like miracles, supernatural stuff etc. what they DON'T do is say God sanctioned it for everyone to follow.

No God means no God, and then no religion, exceptones that don't bother about God.

When you say "creator of the universe" how then do you deal with pantheists for instance that asserts the universe itself is actually God?

Also, At the very core of it, a deistic universe would be indistinguishable from an atheistic universe. I see no reason to favor one over the other.

KinzyeWriter:



Okay bro... This is how I understand things to be about being feeling there is God.... Looking at it from every corner of the world... A lot of beliefs, but there is one thing in common of all ... GOD... We're a being with this instinct of feeling there is someone somewhere that has created everything... Even though we have different imaginations.

Okay... Take for instance, this movie, "The gods must be crazy" those bush guys believe there is someone over everything even when nobody has tell them, the feeling that there is God is constant in everybody brain regardless of tribes culture or color.. There is God.

You mean:

FEELING = PROOF?

Arriving at conclusions just like that does not mean you have found the truth. It means you have only stopped looking for it.

I can't accept god from ignorance! I don't know....I feel it is....therefore I know! Like seriously?

hmm...So far so good, I have been able to smile. We are in the days of Athens and Roman of 1000BC when philosophy was taking its toll in the now developed countries of Greece and Italy. Even Yahweh dem dem cannot stop this mind evolution ongoing in my country

OtemAtum:
hmm...So far so good, I have been able to smile. We are in the days of Athens and Roman of 1000BC when philosophy was taking its toll in the now developed countries of Greece and Italy. Even Yahweh dem dem cannot stop this mind evolution ongoing in my country

Not quite. Atheists and thinkers must have long been amongst us but I think for some reason, in part due to politics and our deep religiosity, they didn't have a chance to have the same effect the Enlightenment thinkers did. Plus Africa didn't suffer the Black Death which spurred rationialism that spurned modern science. Maybe when I resume university I will have the chance to study that more.

UyiIredia:


Not quite. Atheists and thinkers must have long been amongst us but I think for some reason, in part due to politics and our deep religiosity, they didn't have a chance to have the same effect the Enlightenment thinkers did. Plus Africa didn't suffer the Black Death which spurred rationialism that spurned modern science. Maybe when I resume university I will have the chance to study that more.

Why do you think the black death specifically resulted in the enlightenment? For instance American Indians were near wiped out, mostly by disease, but they're still pretty superstitious. Even us, oyinbo blatantly uses science to chance yet we rain superstitious

wiegraf:


Why do you think the black death specifically resulted in the enlightenment? For instance American Indians were near wiped out, mostly by disease, but they're still pretty superstitious. Even us, oyinbo blatantly uses science to chance yet we rain superstitious

Wasn't it the gross inactivity and replies to prayers with repeated death that began waking people up to the idea that maybe it's best they look after themselves, Sure superstition would still exist and maybe I overestimate its importance but then the Enlightenment period started about the 17th century not long after the black death from the 16th. That suggests something.

UyiIredia:


Wasn't it the gross inactivity and replies to prayers with repeated death that began waking people up to the idea that maybe it's best they look after themselves, Sure superstition would still exist and maybe I overestimate its importance but then the Enlightenment period started about the 17th century not long after the black death from the 16th. That suggests something.

OK. Just thought you knew of studies or similar which pointed on that direction.

Nice thread btw

UyiIredia:


Not quite. Atheists and thinkers must have long been amongst us but I think for some reason, in part due to politics and our deep religiosity, they didn't have a chance to have the same effect the Enlightenment thinkers did. Plus Africa didn't suffer the Black Death which spurred rationialism that spurned modern science. Maybe when I resume university I will have the chance to study that more.

This is our chance.

It is easy to assume that if the laws of conservation of energy is true. Then there must something, someone, a phenomenon that was created that cause everything to be.

Now we can argue about the nature of this first cause but based on our human logic and philosophy there is a first cause that was not caused . Otherwise , we will not be here , no big bang no universe no nothing.

I choose to call this uncause cause God and I choose to worship this God. Now you do not have to worship this first cause as it/she/he or whatever it is may indeed not need worship.

However, denying this uncaused first cause is the mother of all illogicalities. That is the deist position

UyiIredia:
Deism is the belief in God outside of religion. Feel free to ask.

So why are deists confused people? You don't have a religion, yet you believed in a god?

chemystery:
My journey to atheism started from deism to being agnostic...
It was only later I realised I was only a deist because I couldn't just let go the god-did-it paradigm.

I also realised that being agnostic was because I have not gotten the balls to identify as an atheist or to accept reality.

But later, I started embracing reality and becoming more honest to myself. I began to care less about the misconception the society have about atheist.

So tell me, why does deism make sense to you? Why do you still cling to god-did-it even as you have no evidence?

Why not somethingElse-did-it? Why no other possibilities? Why do you think there just must be a god?

Lol saw this after responding to the thread. Good to know

alphaNomega:


So why are deists confused people? You don't have a religion, yet you believed in a god?

Deists are not confused. Just that many people don't understand that one does not need a religion to acknowledge there is a God. Read up more on deism on the web. Try deism.com or search deism on Bing.

UyiIredia:


Deists are not confused. Just that many people don't understand that one does not need a religion to acknowledge there is a God. Read up more on deism on the web. Try deism.com or search deism on Bing.

The god concept is something created by religion. It beats me how one would believe in a god yet claim he follows no religion.

It's like saying I know trigonometry exists but dispute the application/existence of Mathematics

alphaNomega:


The god concept is something created by religion. It beats me how one would believe in a god yet claim he follows no religion.

It's like saying I know trigonometry exists but dispute the application/existence of Mathematics

Religion tries to put God in a box, when God is by definition bigger than what we can imagine.

It is thus fundamental error that has caused many religions to ascribe human features to God.

I believe in God but I don't know his nature yet

GeneralShepherd:

Religion tries to put God in a box, when God is by definition bigger than what we can imagine.

Summarizes my main problem with religions in general.

UyiIredia:
Deism is the belief in God outside of religion. Feel free to ask.

How did you come about this god outside of religion? Did he reveal himself to you? And can you perhaps states the purpose behind why this god created the universe? Why he created you? Or simply, how's the relationship between this god and our world?