Why I'm An Agnostic Deist: A Brief Explanation

I was a devout Catholic until I was 18 because I wanted to believe the good things about religion were true, but more and more I learned how judgmental and hateful many religious people are. The judgment and hate isn't only on Christians. I discovered quite a few very judgy Pagans and "New Age" types along the way. 

Over the years I became a lot more agnostic because I felt like I didn't have any right to be so arrogant as to claim that I "KNEW" the nature of the higher powers. I don't think that our limited minds can truly understand them. 

I think that to them we are developmentally like lower animals. Only an egomaniac would demand that something smaller and less developed worship it or be tortured and destroyed. Hence why I refuse to worship at the altar of any egomaniac deity.

To be clear, I do not think that the creator deity (or deities) is an egomaniac. I think it is a benevolent power (powers) although not terribly involved in the affairs of the material Universe.

~Cie~

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015: T is for Theism

I actually enjoyed listening to this sermon, although it raises for me the sort of issues that initially made me begin questioning the belief system of my childhood.

I was raised Catholic, and was very devout into my teen years. I began to wonder why the God I worshiped seemed to bless some and curse others. I had quite a difficult time during my teen years and wondered why God hated me when I tried my very best to do good and went to church each week as well.

It wasn't that I was perfect. I was a bit of a rebel. I smoked and I liked to party at any possible opportunity. But I was kind to others. I wondered why that didn't count for something.

Biblical literalism was the first thing to go from my belief system. The church was the next thing. I couldn't abide the many judgmental attitudes that I encountered among the believers.

I am still rather convinced that there is a higher power, or at least I strongly believe in the possibility of one. However, I no longer believe in the rather egotistical deity that I was taught to worship in my childhood. 

I can't align my own thoughts and beliefs with theism, because I find a deity that demands worship from its creations or it will cause them to suffer regardless of whatever positive and helpful traits they may have extremely off-putting. Deism makes more sense, as far as I'm concerned. A being so advanced that it could create the Universe surely would be beyond such a petty emotion as egotism.

The God of the bible (at least as interpreted by the majority of those calling themselves Christians) is an abusive parent who demands unquestioning adulation from his creations. I refuse to worship any being which is that egotistical. If there is a higher power, I believe it judges our actions, not our willingness to fawn over it.

~Morella~

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2014: M is for Music

There is music for many belief systems.
The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir may not have any specific beliefs, but they like Gospel music.
It's hard to find specific Buddhist musicians. Many times the chants are done by monks.
Counting Crowns sing for Christ with their brand of contemporary Christian music.
I don't know if one could consider this music "representative of Deism," but it is cool.

People who follow the tenets of Eckankar believe that the sound HU has special meaning.

I once worked with a fellow who practiced Eckankar. I was interested to hear about his beliefs until I discovered that his real goal was to try and get into my pants. Then I stopped listening.

Hindu songs praise the various deities of Hinduism.

There are many others. We may examine them at another time!

~Gretyll~

Spectra Says It: Why I Don't Believe In or Worship the Church God

I do not believe in or worship the Church God of what many people call Christianity.

This is not to say that I don't believe in a higher power/creator force.

It is not to say that I don't believe in certain entities or possibilities currently termed "metaphysical" or "magic."

It is not to say that I don't believe in at least the possibility of beings such as those creatures that might be termed angels, demons, or deities. 

What I am saying is that even if the Church God exists, I do not and will not worship said being. However, in truth I believe that the Church God is mostly a projection of the ideals of Zir worshipers.

The Church God is an egotistical, abusive asshole. I will not worship an egotistical, abusive asshole.

What deity worth zir salt would require the absolute prostration of creatures so far beneath it? To an all powerful being, we would seem no more evolved than a cluster of caterpillars. To require absolute worship from us would be similar to me requiring absolute worship from my fish. After all, I feed the bastard and change its water. It should be bowing down and worshiping me. I allow it to live.

As for the omnipotence of such a being, if it is omnipotent and involved in our lives, then how dare it allow such horrors as children being raped, women and girls being impregnated by rape, children dying of cancer and other diseases, people of any age losing their intellectual capabilities due to terrible conditions that destroy their brains. 

What kind of a monster would allow a person who felt they were male be born into a female body to a father who, when said person hit puberty, raped them and forced them to bear the child of said forced copulation? Then, to add insult to injury, said person came to love said child, and said child died as the result of anaphylaxis following a bee sting. Then, while said person was recovering from the grief of losing said child, it is discovered that he has bone cancer.

The above is a true story which has all happened in the brief 18 years that this unfortunate young man has been on the Earth.

If the Church God exists, perhaps one can explain away the rape as free will on the part of the father, who chose to commit the vile act of rape. But how do you explain away the bone cancer? 

If Church God gave this person bone cancer, ze is malicious. I don't care if it's "so he can learn important lessons and get closer to God." That's just fucking awful.

If Church God did not give this person bone cancer, but ze cannot take it away, ze is not omnipotent. 

If Church God did not give this person bone cancer, but ze will not take it away, ze is either malevolent or apathetic.

The only one of these that I would even consider paying homage to is a benevolent but not omnipotent creator force which is able to give life but not prevent disease or evil.

Let us postulate for a moment that Church God is an absolute fact. Church God exists. Ze giveth and Ze taketh away. Ze allows evil of all stripes because human free will. (I'm still not sure how our free will allows diseases or death raining from the sky in the form of killer asteroids or anything but human-perpetrated crime such as rape and murder, but okay.) Ze is omnipotent (all powerful) and Zir followers claim that Ze is all-loving.

I still call bullshit.

A being that is all loving would not require absolute worship or to the eternal lake of fire and torture to any being that does not believe or refuses to worship. That isn't all loving, that's all ego. I refuse to worship any being under threat of punishment. 

A being that is all loving AND all powerful would never allow one of its creatures to be raped and murdered. Hell, it wouldn't have even created anything that was carnivorous. Everything would be eating leaves and seeds happily.

For a being that is omnipotent to stand idly by and watch its creations suffer?

That's just all kinds of fucked up.

Either Church God is benevolent but not omnipotent, ze is omnipotent but malevolent, ze is omnipotent but apathetic, or ze is nether benevolent nor omnipotent. 

The one thing Church God is not is benevolent and omnipotent. Because if Ze were, the world would not be nearly as fucked up as it is.

~Spectra~

Jesus: A Buffer Between Humanity and a Dickish Overlord

I used to be devout, one of the believers. I was raised by a family who believed the old fire and brimstone teachings. When I was in my teens I began to question. By the time I was out of high school, I could no longer buy any of it.

I went through a period of disgruntled atheism. When I was eighteen, I was one of those acerbic atheists who felt that anyone who had faith was a perfect idiot. By the time I was twenty-five, I had mellowed on that perspective, becoming an agnostic rather than a hardline atheist. I think becoming a parent had something to do with this.

I don't think that we live in a black and white Universe. I think there are a lot of shades of gray. To me, deism has come to make sense. I believe in the possibility of a higher power or powers. I do not believe that they are egotistical enough to require human worship. I think they're pretty well uninvolved. 

At this point I see Jesus the way I see Siddhartha: a teacher who tried to guide people to treat one another better. I do not discount the possibility of reincarnation. The personality is energy. It makes a degree of sense that when energy is displaced it changes form and may find a new home.

Following my exodus from fire and brimstone Christianity, I came to see Jesus as a mediator between humanity and a dickish overlord: the God of the Christian Church. This God sees fit to send "challenges" to people to see if they can "maintain their faith" in the face of awfulness, sometimes such awfulness that no-one could come through it unscathed unless they were a completely soulless sociopath. Jesus is the one who helps people bear up under such onslaughts by their dickish, egotistical God.

I think that true Christianity has little to do with the Overlord of Dickishness. It has to do with treating one another as we would like to be treated. It has to do with extending ourselves a little to help one another so we can all live as well as possible. 

In my view, God (if you will) is not a dickish overlord. It is a distant, remote, uninvolved power. Such is the nature of deism. Jesus now becomes less of a mediator than a healer and teacher.

I like Jesus. I always have. I do not like the brand of Christianity which pervades in the modern world, which postulates judgmental attitudes and servitude to a dickish overlord. I'm done with that brand of Christianity. If Jesus were here today, I'm quite sure he'd be done with it too.

~Petra~