Interesting viewpoints from what I briefly researched on Deism. It places a term to the way I have grown in my own belief of a single creator. I haven't spent nearly the amount of time as most of you have in shithole locations, just a single tour in Iraq, and a lot of time spent at
more awe inspiring locations such as A.P. Hill, et al. However, during my downtime spent far from family and friends, and taking long walks in the woods with weighted pack, it does allow for a lot of introspection time. My conclusion is that no single religion or lack of belief in a deity/higher power can be correct.
Too many centuries have past where too many men have translated and transcribed the works or understandings of others. Knowing this, and having an understanding of the way politics and religion were in our distant past as humans, I refuse to believe that the actual words or prophecies have not been tampered with. I believe that they've been altered to suit whoever was in power at whatever place in time across the world, for whatever selfish reasons they had in order to obtain absolute rule.
The presence of God (which is
my name for
my higher power), IMO cannot logically be denied; causality is real. There has to be a beginning and even an end to everything. Atheism stresses that essentially we're all just "here". I believe this to be an ignorant and lazy approach to life, and possibly the reason we're seeing immoral and illogical actions increasing daily. I know wikipedia is not that reliable of a source, but for all intents and purposes, here is a quote pulled from their page:
Quote:
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Arguments for atheism range from the philosophical to social and historical approaches. Rationales for not believing in any supernatural deity include the lack of empirical evidence, the problem of evil, the argument from inconsistent revelations, rejection of concepts which cannot be falsified, and the argument from nonbelief. Although some atheists have adopted secular philosophies, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere. Many atheists hold that atheism is a more parsimonious worldview than theism, and therefore the burden of proof lies not on the atheist to disprove the existence of God, but on the theist to provide a rationale for theism.
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Lack of empirical evidence...hmm. Whenever I am asked by an atheist how I can believe in something I cannot see, and that has not been proven, I explain it to them the way it was explained to me. I ask them if they believe in wind, and they will immediately say "of course, that is proven". My simple retort is that "wind is not visible, but you can feel it right?" That's how I feel about the presence of God. I have personally seen and felt drastic and impossible interventions over the course of my life that cannot be written off as mere coincidence.
To have a lack of faith or belief in a higher power, is to have a lack of faith or belief in morality, and it only serves as an excuse to be mediocre or worse, but of course YMMV.