Would deism solve the religious differences in the world? Would it help usher in an era of peace?
https://www.quora.com/Would-deism-solve ... a-of-peace
reply to
Mike Organ, Gods absence leads me to conclude that god does not exist.
“But anyway what is the difference between Deism and Atheism. In effect the end product is exactly the same. So why be a Deist?”
As Christopher Finch noted above, Deism is not a religion, but a philosophical worldview. It is also not “the anarchism of religion”, because it is not in competition with religion or politics for power over people. So, as a private personal search for wisdom, it can co-exist with popular belief systems and political loyalties . . . and scientific theories.
Like Agnosticism, Deism may be more of an alternative to Atheism than to Theism, as a secular worldview. I sometimes refer to myself as an Agnostic Deist, in the sense that I don’t have to know for sure that a Cosmic Mind is running the show, in order to guide my life by that axiom. Ancient Taoists*1 didn't concern themselves with objective evidence of a Cosmic Principle, they merely aligned their minds with the path of least resistance in Nature. As philosophers, instead of scientists, they could appreciate the power of Emptiness*2. In his book of science & philosophy,
Incomplete Nature, Terrence Deacon explains the power of Absence*3 in non-mystical technical terms.
Deists and Taoists observe the
teleodynamic behavior of the material world. From these clues, they infer a cosmic purpose, even though they can't claim to have a revelation (gnosis) of the ultimate beginning or end of The Path. Atheists explain the obvious order & progression of the universe mythically, as a serendipitous accident emerging non-miraculously from the random chaos of infinite Multiverses, which like God must be taken on faith. Yet Deists interpret the existence of ideas & values in the world as signs of entention from a creative Mind of some kind -- what I call G*D -- which like the Multiverse is an imaginary inference from limited evidence*4.
The "end product" of Atheism is a worldview of forking paths with no map for guidance. But the Deist worldview envisions a Path (the Tao) marked by the spoor (constraints) of G*D. In both cases we are wandering in a labyrinth, but in the latter we have a thin thread to follow.
*1. “My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them,you'll fail.
― Lao Tzu,
Tao Te Ching
*2. “The pot's use comes from emptiness.”
― Lao Tzu,
Tao Te Ching
*3. Power of Absence :
http://bothandblog3.enformationism.info/page33.html
*4. The G*D Concept :
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page35.html
“In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creatures flourish together,
content with the way they are,
endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.
when man interferes with the Tao
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures become extinct.”
― Lao Tzu,
Tao Te Ching
“Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Other call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.”
― Lao Tzu,
Tao Te Ching
Mike Organ response, 5/7/2109 :
Absolute nonsense. Tao and Deism come from different cultures and to try and force them together is ridiculous. But then both are ridiculous just in different ways.
You are one of those people who have read a little about eastern mysticism and a lot less of Spinoza then fall into the prickly pear trap never to be able to crawl out.
Reply to Mike Organ, 5/7/2019 :
"
Absolute nonsense"
Metaphysics does sound like BS to those who "sense" only reductive classical physics. But Newton's gravity was accepted by those who did the math, even though his "spooky action at a distance" sounded like magic. Einstein's metaphorical description of gravity, as the warped fabric of empty space, sounded like metaphysical BS to classical physicists, until they did the math. The hypothetical deity of Deism can't be proven by crunching numbers though, because S/he is the essence of mathematics : Spinoza's singular self-subsistent substance. Yet, little by little, we are climbing out of the "trap" of Materialism, epitomized long ago as Atomism, but now diluted into the nothingness of the Quantum Field. Virtual particles are literally non-sense.*1
I'm neither a Materialist nor a Spiritualist; I'm somewhere in between. I think most Religions are right about the Big Picture, but wrong about the Details, such as gods & ghosts. I also think Science is right about the Parts (physics), but wrong about the Whole (metaphysics). My hope is to have the best of both worldviews :
reductive-rational-analytical and holistic-intuitive-synthetical. Balancing the conflicting
Yin-versus-Yang into a harmonious
Yin/Yang is difficult, but necessary for personal integrity.
"
Tao and Deism come from different cultures and to try and force them together is ridiculous."
All religious cultures are different in the details, yet the core philosophy has always been the same : that there is more to reality than meets the eye. But humans have interpreted that intuitive truth in various ways. For some, the "more than" is imagined as "more of the same, only different" (e.g. ghosts are ectoplasmic bodies). For others the "more than" is "turtles all the way down" (matter > atoms > multiverses). For a few, the "more than" is The Whole, The ALL, The One. The eye of the body can only see collections of Parts, while the eye of the mind can see the System. Is that ridiculous?
The Deist philosophy is not a god-worshipping Religion, but merely a practical way of life, in view of natural laws established by the Creator. So, there's no need to force Taoists to become Deists. We merely acknowledge the perennial philosophical concepts that we hold in common (e.g. holism). The superficial differences are what people have always fought about. But there's one key insight that most philosophers of mind agree on : Materialism is how the world looks to the primitive animal mind. Only evolved (enlightened)*2 minds can see the invisible patterns that make matter manifest. When Scientists, Mathematicians, and Philosophers see patterns in nature, they are reading the mind of G*D.
Deism has something in common with all world Religions, and with modern Science. But it also dispenses with most of the superfluous baggage, such as Spiritism and Scientism. Ideally, Deism is parsimonious, eliminating superfluous details that divide us, and focusing only on the essence that unites.
NOTE : Early forms of Deism were basically Christianity Lite, and followed the teachings of Jesus rather than Paul. As time went by, Deist beliefs were informed more by modern science than by ancient scriptures. They also became acquainted with holistic oriental traditions that seemed
simpatico. The latest development, as far as I know, is labeled "Neo-Deism" to differentiate from earlier stages of enlightenment. After the application of Occam's Razor, its definition is pared down to essentially : Science + G*D. *3
*1. Subatomic Realism :
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... -33732-4_8
*2. Enlightenment is a process, not a sudden revelation.
*3. NeoDeism :
https://www.neodeism.com/