Deism 101

Belief in God + God-Given Reason = Deism

http://www.deism.com/deism_defined.htm

Interesting stuff! For quite a while, I have not been 100% comfortable with organized religion, yet I have always felt a need for an "organized" way to express my spiritual beliefs.

I have long thought that religion was fine -- it was the human beings who "ran" organized religions that I could not always trust. Face it -- while a lot of good has come from belief in an organized religion, lots and lots of suffering has also come from belief in organized religions. Furthermore, some of the good has been done with an ulterior motive (e.g., missionaries who clothe and feed the poor only if they listen to their preaching).

Who wrote the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, etc.? Humans. I am certainly not anti-human, but us human types tend to have our own biases and perspectives on the world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, until you get some who take things and run too far with them (e.g., the Inquisition, September 11, etc.).

What did God write? Flowers, mountains, solar systems, puppies, love. This is not from a book, nor from an organized religion. God created all, and then left us to take His wonderful gifts (flowers, mountains, etc...) and run with them. We only need to send prayers of Thanksgiving, because to pray for anything else is silly. Didn't God already give you everything you need? You have reason, free will and intelligence because God gave them to you. Now, all you have to do is choose to use them (or not).

We (us human types) have all we need - including peace - if we choose to have it. We have incredible knowledge and potential (for good and for bad). We also have been given this beautiful planet on which to live (and share with the other creations God made, especially puppies - my bias there!).

Anyway, when I hear people praying for their team to win the football game, I have to think, "God gave you so much and all you can do is ask for your lousy team to win a game?!?" When I hear people praying for peace, I think, "We have the God-given abilities to make peace happen ourselves! It's us who are choosing not to use those abilities, not God's choice not to allow peace to happen."

Thank you, God. I have all I need.