Re: Why do Deists seem less likely to congregate than Theist
rosborne979 wrote:Why have Deists been less inclinded to form churches and to congregate than many theists? Deists seem similar to athiests in this way.
Deists don't by into the supranatural as many Pagan religions do. Their beliefs don't really fit with with the concept of "oragnized religion" very well either.
From the Religous Tolerance WWW site:
Deism:
Beliefs and Practices:
- Deists base their belief in the existence of God on their observations of design found throughout nature. The Discovery Institute in Seattle, WA share this belief and developed their theory of Intelligent Design as an alternative theory of origins to compete with Creationism and Evolution.
- Most Deists believe that God created the universe, "wound it up" and then disassociated himself from his creation. Some refer to Deists as believing in a God who acts as an absentee landlord or a blind watchmaker. A few Deists believe that God still intervenes in human affairs from time to time.
- They do not view God as an entity in human form.
- They believe that one cannot access God through any organized religion, set of beliefs, rituals, sacraments or other practice.
- God has not selected a chosen people (e.g. Jews or Christians) to be the recipients of any special revelation or gifts.
- Deists deny the existence of the Trinity as conceived by Christians. They often view Jesus as a philosopher, rabbi, teacher and healer, but not as the Son of God.
- They believe that miracles do not happen. The "world operates by natural and self-sustaining laws of the creator."
- A practical morality can be derived from reason without the need to appeal to religious revelation and church dogma. "Most Deists believe humans are too innately noble to require supernatural coercion and threats of eternal damnation to behave morally."
- Most Deists view God as having departed from nature. Thus, prayer makes no sense to them. However, some pray to express their appreciation to God for his works. The latter generally do not ask for special privileges, or try to assess the will of God through prayer, or ask God to perform miracles.
- Most Deists do not actively evangelize the public.
So what is there to organize or build a church for? You can't really "observe nature" from inside a building and if they want to study some aspect of nature in texts they can go to a library.