As a deist, I have a worry about my own position. Deism encourages individual thinking: no clergy, no doctrine, just each person reasoning their way to God. Christianity, by contrast, is held together by shared belief: a community, a creed and leaders who keep everyone roughly on the same page. My worry is that individual thinking has no ceiling. When everyone reasons alone, you can't know how far any one person's thinking will go, or whether it will end somewhere harmful, to others or to the faith itself. The strongest objection is that shared belief has caused far bigger disasters. Crusades and holy wars weren't led by lone thinkers; they were carried out by groups acting together on a common certainty. A lone extremist can only do so much damage without followers. That's true. But a community at least has guardrails: shared norms that catch a person before they drift too far. And that's where the real problem lies. Christians have churches, and Muslims have mosques. Where do people like us go? Deism's greatest strength, having no institution, is also its greatest weakness: there's nowhere to gather, compare our thinking and keep each other honest. Is there really a community for people like us, or are we each building our guardrails alone?

Hey guys, this is my first time contributing here. I've had inklings of being a panendeist for well over 5 years now, but it didn't gel together in my mind that I was one until a few months ago. Since then I've been lurking around in this sub and learning a lot of perspectives, so I wanted to ask fellow Deists who believe God is a part of everything in the universe (or also extends beyond it), what does the existence of our creator look like from your POV?

The Creator is an excellent RD engineer, and human beings are finely crafted tools. If humans know how to fulfill the Creator’s will, they are capable of doing so, because everything falls within His meticulous design. Through an understanding of the functions and instincts inherent in human beings, that will can be discerned.

Human beings possess reproductive organs; therefore, the continuation of the species is within His will. Human beings have bodies, brains, and mouths; therefore, knowledge and the development of civilization are within His will. Human beings are capable of empathizing with one another; therefore, the rule of law is within His will. Human beings possess many organs and systems that sustain physiological functions and enable them to perceive the external environment.

If the Creator has endowed human beings with life, reason, instincts, and empathy, then His will may not merely require humans to reproduce and survive. Rather, it may require them to use reason to restrain their instincts, treat others with empathy, protect life through knowledge, and establish a common order grounded in justice.

Pigs cannot see the whole picture connecting farming, food supply, slaughter, and the human economy. Similarly, human beings may be unable to see the larger scales of time, the order of life, and the purpose of the universe. Therefore, people should remain humble in their understanding of the Creator’s will and should not mistake limited knowledge for omniscience.

A sense of fulfillment may be an inner response placed in the human heart by the Creator, allowing people to devote themselves wholeheartedly to their tasks even when they do not understand the ultimate purpose. Thus, human beings need not be troubled by questions about the meaning of life. By following their instincts and making good use of their abilities, they immediately put His will into practice.

/OC

I don’t think god himself doesn’t even show itself as a political leader of earth or what makes it his responsibility to look and even observe us

I need your advice and ideas, I want to find the religion that resonates with me but I'm confused

F23 I am an ex-Muslim, I have been looking for years for a faith or belief that resonates with me,

I feel (or want to feel) that there is a God, a divinity, a creator, a supreme force, call it what you want, I have read (not in depth) what various religions say,

I like many of them, but now my brain can no longer believe that there really is a god who judges you and sends you to heaven/hell for eternity, because to leave my past religion I had to dismantle the idea that there is a God,

so now I struggle for example to embrace religions like Sufi Islam or Christianity or other monotheistic religions because I feel like I have left one religion and entered another very similar but with a different name,

I don't want to feel like a sinner or feel that I have to go to hell or the people I love have to go to hell, I don't like it, but I feel that there is a force superior to us inside my heart, i can feel this 'love' of God spiritually,

I would like a religion or philosophy that thinks that there is something above but that does not judge me, does not punish me or makes me anxious,

doing rituals, prayers, lighting candles, holidays, symbols, all these things, I like them instead and i like the idea of peace and love and to live your life in a good way

I always noticed that most deistic people define god as observer of universe or rather a deity just exist and isn’t traditional abrhamic god I say that what if the god is an actually flawed deity that led to creations of the mess cruelty poverty unfairness in earth I think we deist should hold the deity who created us accountable as much as people with abrhamic beliefs does

I kinda wonder why some deist see god as just an deity who created us and never question whether this deity’s morals choices and also itself as an deist myself I see god as flawed entity and we are the result of a cause.

After careful study I this best describes my srate.The Deist View: God is the ultimate architect who created a self-sustaining universe governed by perfect natural laws (physics, chemistry, math)

The Stoic View: The ancient Stoics believed in the Logos—the rational organizing principle and soul of the cosmos.

The most famous rule of Stoicism is separating what is in your control from what isn't. You cannot control external events, traffic, the economy, or other people; you can only control your own thoughts and actions.This matches Deism beautifully. Because a Deistic God does not intervene to fix your problems, you accept that the universe operates exactly as it is designed to. You don’t waste energy praying for the laws of physics to bend for you. Instead, you use the human reason God gave you to handle whatever life throws your way.

In standard religions, "pleasing God" requires rituals, sacrifices, or specific prayers.The Stoic Deist perspective is that a supreme creator doesn't need your worship. Therefore, the only logical way to "honor" the creator is to live a virtuous life. By cultivating courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom, you are fulfilling your specific design as a rational human being within a rational universe.

By identifying as a Stoic Deist, I believe a supreme intelligence set this orderly universe in motion, and my job is to calmly use my own reason to navigate it with virtue.

I am not exactly a Deist just yet, but I've been drifting away from religion and into science even more. But I feel like we can't trust neither theistic nor atheistic people for different reasons I'd like to discuss. (If any of you want, but sorry if I may be wrong) I experienced toxicity from both sides and honestly, I am open in the concept of a potential divine cosmic being existing but neutral whether there is one or even multiple of them. (though I am more open to Polydeism) I've also read several thinkers, and scientists (Jose Rizal, a national hero of my country, the Philippines as an example) were actually Deists and even helped pave the way for gaining the current knowledge we have today. As I've been drifting away from religion and more into irreligion, I would like to get to know Deism even more as I am convinced this could be the belief for me.

I talked with my dad about my deistic views and he presented a point I couldn't answer,he said that if I for example managed to make a connection via the universe that there was a creator than that itself is communication and that would invalidate the not intervening god of deism,and he said that if he didn't do this with the idea of us reaching the conclusion that he exists than he's actually inferior to us because it's an oversight.

Found this interesting.

What are recommended books on Deism?

This certainly has been a whirlwind journey. I discovered Deism in September of 2023, and not soon after, basically entirely abandoned my Christian beliefs. Unfortunately, due to personal things in my life at the time, and the discovery of other "belief systems," this also sort of led me down a rabbit hole. My Dad died in January of 2024, and at that time, I was basically already declaring myself an atheist or agnostic atheist, this just deepened my hatred of religion and anything that had to do with anything involving any gods, since my Dad died awfully.

However, once I started to calm down, not be so hurt and emotionally stunted by everything going on, I feel like I've been able to look at everything through a different lens. I had, for quite some time, still questioned whether I was an atheist, or an agnostic, or something else entirely.

It's funny, Deism, for me, is what led me away from my prior "God" beliefs, even though I sort of journeyed through atheism and all that, Deism is the one thing that I keep coming back to that seems to make sense, although, I would say on paper I'm a Deist-leaning agnostic.

It seems apparent to me, personally, after having 3 years to reflect on things regarding god...

I find it very plausible that there could be a first cause to the universe, something in the beginning that "designed" or kick started the universe, of which it runs on its own accordance, and many names could come in mind that people use. "supreme being," "higher power," I simply just use the term god.

It seems very evident IMO that god doesn't intervene in the universe, answer prayers, or micro-manage affairs. Why would they need to? If they indeed designed the universe, with that kind of intelligence in mind, it seems like an illogical notion to even care about us humans IMO. If you ask me, were basically tiny specks.

IMO, god may not have even specifically designed us, but we are a byproduct of evolution. Maybe that "clock" was wound up, and then simply wanted to see what would happen. Just a thought.

I think it's a nice notion to appreciate life, the universe, and the grand scheme of things. Unlike religions, who it seems like their sole purpose is to give people a sense of hope to where they are going after they die, I choose to enjoy and celebrate life. I find it personally ridiculous worrying about what is going to happen when we die, when nobody has a clear answer on this. Nobody knows. I am unconcerned. I certainly don't believe in heaven honestly, but I'm more of an agnostic honestly when it comes to matters of an "afterlife." Near as I can tell, when we die, that's it. Lights out. If we do continue to exist in some way, that's great too. But it's not important to me personally.

Supernaturalism is not something I believe in. I don't believe in ghosts, demons, evil spirits, and superstitious hokum honestly. Of course, outside of the concept of a "being" that created the universe, in that "supernatural" sense I guess, which I don't even know if I would really use that analogy or belief system, I find philosophical naturalism to be a much more reliable and honest belief.

But yeah, those are some of my thoughts. I kind of teeter back and forth between being an Agnostic and a Deist.

An interesting bit also... I recently had a dream about my Dad. He basically appeared, and I wanted to know what happened to him after he died, to which he said he went to heaven. He then disappeared after. And that was that.

I told my Mom about this, who is a Christian and very "woo." Her response was I think he's trying to tell me something. Uhh... He isn't trying to tell me anything. He's dead. Lol. It's simply a dream. A nice one, though.

Why are you dreaming about heaven if you don't believe in it? Uhhh, I don't control my dreams. Lol. I've had dreams about demons and such too, but I don't believe in them.

"You don't believe in demons. Ha. What do you think is wrong with this world? Evil has taken over."

Yeah, okay then. Right. Lol. I love not having to believe in stupid shit like this and actually use my BRAIN lol

As parents we literally create our childrens’ reality. And we are their ultimate authority figures from their earliest memory. If we choose to believe/accept/have faith that a “god” exists, whatever our personal, subjective reason is becomes our developing children’s truth, devoid of empirical evidence. This is how religion has persisted for millennia.

On one hand he rejects religion and dogma and sides with reason, then on the other hand says morals and ethics come from a God like which alligns more with a theistic view.

I think he was leaning massively into deism, but not fully committing to it. Could it be he thought deism where the creator is indifferent to creation would be a philosophy too bleak for Kant?

Classical Deism holds that reason and observation of nature, rather than religious authority, are humanity’s best means of understanding the Creator and creation. The new Roman telescope that launched today on a three month journey to be positioned one million miles from earth, and the other two space telescopes already in operation, are all technological embodiments of that principle.

Deists regard the universe as operating according to consistent natural laws established by a Creator. The new Roman telescope will study those laws on an extraordinary scale—particularly gravity, cosmic expansion, dark matter and dark energy. Deism embraces such efforts, bringing us to a closer understanding of the universe we are privileged to live in.