Hi Kevin, On Oct 31, 2011, at 4:38 AM, Kevin Kervick wrote:
> Yes, there is but it is fractured like everything else in the country these > days. There is a World Union of Deists that is very active albeit they are > activist and take strong positions against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam > which makes some people uncomfortable. I joined for a bit but then backed > out when it seemed they were too strident for my taste. Others inside the > Deist movement believe this group is Marxist and anti-Semitic (They are > certainly anti-Zionist). I receive their information but interpret it > accordingly. There are also several other Deistic websites and authors. > This is a pretty good one: Interestingly, that reflects my own perspective on deism. I actually think deism works well as an *ontologic* model -- I've talked about The Deistic Hypothesis elsewhere: http://2transform.us/2007/01/10/diablogue-a-minimal-set-of-shared-beliefs/ However, I don't think it works as a *epistemic* model. Deism, as opposed to theism, appears to necessarily rely a sort of "pure inductive reason" (much like libertarianism :-). I don't believe such a model actually works for human beings in the real world, on empirical grounds (in both senses of the world). That is why I see Deism (and Unitarianism, and in some ways even Atheism) useful as a counter to strident monotheism, but not really viable on their own. Rather, I see deism working as the "neutral territory" which various theistic (even pantheistic) world views can agree upon for purpose of common action. But that would require "true deists" (I actually didn't know there were many such non-Unitarians around) to act more as arbiters between, rather than critics of, the theistic faiths. -- Ernie P. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
