You/he seem to misunderstand what a Deist is. They believe in God, they just don't appreciate the popular religions version of the story.
. On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]>wrote: > > There's an interesting essay by Eric Raymond that answers this. Its well > worth reading the whole thing. > http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=312 > > Quoting from the essay: > > Religious conservatives are fond of replying by pointing excitedly at the > references to "Nature's God", "Divine Providence", and the "Creator" in the > Declaration of Independence. > > Raymond then quotes the relevant passages of the Declaration: > > When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to > dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to > assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to > which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect > to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes > which impel them to the separation. > > We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, > that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; > > And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the > protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our > Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. > > Raymond then cites some other passages in Jefferson's writings where he > displays as obvious hostility to Christianity. So Raymond asks, "Of what > 'God', if not the Christian one, was Jefferson speaking?" He replies: > > The answer to this question -- which also explains the references in the > Declaration of Independence -- is that Jefferson, like many intellectuals > of his time, was a Deist. The "Creator" and "Nature's God" in the > Declaration of Independence, and the God of Jefferson's altar, is not the > intervening Christian God but the God of Deism. > > Deism was an early attempt to reconcile the mechanistic world-view arising > from experimental science with religion. Deists believed in a remote sort > of clockmaker-God who created the universe but then refrained from meddling > in it afterwards. Deists explicitly rejected faith, revelation, religious > doctrine, religious authority, and all existing religions. They held that > humans could know the mind of God only through the study of nature; in many > versions of Deist thinking, the mind of God was explicitly identified with > the laws of nature. > > Thus "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God"; in Deist thought these concepts > blurred together. The phrase "endowed by their Creator" could be rendered > accurately as "endowed by Nature". In modern terms, this is an entirely > naturalistic account of human rights. > That's exactly right. Finally, Raymond notes: > > Jeffersons "altar of God" quote and the references in the Declaration of > Independence are easy to misconstrue today because Deism did not long > outlive the Founding Fathers. In their time it functioned as a sort of > halfway house for intellectuals who rejected traditional religion but were > unwilling to declare themselves atheists or agnostics. As the social risk > of taking these positions decreased, Deism waned. > > So they were not referring to some dude in some cloud wearing a white > sheet, Rather they were referring to the entirely naturalistic and > mechanistic principles found in the world. A concept entirely compatible > with skepticism. > > > On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 4:21 PM, GMoney <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > You are correct. I never implied they were. > > > > But they DID mention a Creator......it very specifically said our rights > > are endowed by our CREATOR...not by us. So whether by God or by Nature, > our > > rights were endowed to us, we didn't create them ourselves. > > > -- > Larry C. Lyons > web: http://www.lyonsmorris.com/lyons > LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/larryclyons > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:362410 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
