Aside from providing me with ample entertainment, one annoying thing I'm noticing in this forum is that people are throwing around the word "Theist" without necessarily knowing what it means. It's just used as the generic blanket statement for "not atheist" or something... So I'd like to clear this up:
- A deist is someone who believes in a deity/god-like creator.
- A theist is a deist who also believes in "revelation", which roughly means that this creator hangs around, has revealed itself to humans, and so on and so fourth. Often, it's associated with scriptures, worship, etc.
Now, with that in mind, I also enjoy how most of the heated debates here happen on one of two fronts: morals and creation. But why are there no debates in between the two, I asked myself. Well, it's time to have one.
Let's say you're a true theist (i.e. not the loser who says "because I have nothing to lose, I'll just believe in something so there's a chance to go to heaven"). Why are you a theist and not a deist? I mean, maybe through lots of thinking, you've come to the conclusion that this scientific explanation for stuff is a load of crap, and there really has to be a deity (or at least aliens) involved. That step is perfectly understandable. But why do you make the leap to say that this deity must be praised and worshipped?
While everyone is perfectly welcome to answer, I'm mostly interested in answers by those who are true to their faiths. And by that I mean, those who have questioned it, and come to the conclusion that it really is for them.
...because I didn't become agnostic overnight. I started out catholic, and eventually became a deist. THEN I became agnostic... but I have to say, going from theist to deist was a MUCH bigger leap than going from deist to agnostic, which just kind of fell into place.
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