What’s The Point of Deism?

“The great question I have with Deism is why would you bother?”

That strikes me as an odd question. I mean, what’s the point of physics? Physics is a way to describe the way the world works, a collection of theories. Deism is also a way of describing the way the world works, albeit one that doesn’t use, say, document-able, repeatable, or even observable evidence. Otherwise they’re the same thing.

Sort of.

The trouble with “nickpheas’” comments lies in the word “worship.” Deism isn’t exactly a religion, although it does look at religious question. But just because it has a religious bent does not mean that there is any sort of worship implied... any more than a physicist worships the Grand Unified Theory.

I do not worship a deity. I do not serve one. I do not give thanks for its acts, and I do not believe the existence of such a deity has an impact upon my daily life.

So why am I deist? Why do I think about this at all? Why am I concerned with the question and how it relates to my life?

Because, simply put, I have faith.

I am not proud of it. In fact, it’s rather irritating at time because it is entirely irrational. I have never experienced anything that could not be explained through common means. I have no reason to believe that there is a god, or a creator. I like to think that I’m aware enough to concede that existence itself is not evidence of a first cause, let alone a first creator.

And yet.

And yet, I have laid upon the grass and looked up at the stars and believed. And yet, I have looked into myself... and I have believed.

Much of the rest of it has to do social conditioning. I was raised Catholic and there are deep, human needs that religion provides and I suspect that my feelings of loss and search stem from their lack. But for all my rationality, for all my fierce belief in humanism... still I believe.

Now, I just have to figure out what I believe in.