This primer is rather different than the others. It
attempt to explain how Deists can have such a broad variety of
individual beliefs and all still be Deists.
I Believe in Deism for a Reason
Read any good, objective definition of Deism, and
it will tell you that Deism is the belief in God based on reason,
nature and experience. That is an excellent definition. Now, what does
that really mean?
If you are a Deist, that definition probably makes
sense, because that is how you feel, but when you try to explain this
definition in detail to someone who is not a Deist, you may find the
task to be a bit difficult. Even for someone who has been a Deist for a
while, it is hard to use one simple definition to account for the wide
variety of beliefs you find among people who call themselves Deists. And
if you try to explain why Deists believe so many different things, you
may begin to wonder yourself. Why
do all these people consider themselves Deists in the first place? How
do Deists live their lives any differently than people who believe
something else? What does being a Deist mean, and why would you want to
be one?
Deists are too often defined by what they reject,
rather than by what they accept. That is one way to define Deism, but
it is not the best way. Many come to Deism after rejecting their
former beliefs. They start looking for something that can help them
make some sense out of their lives, something to believe in to replace
the belief system they turned away from. They start reading about and
hearing about Deism, and they see a good fit. They jump on the
bandwagon. But after a while, criticizing other religions gets old. It
is just not very constructive. And if the Deist community does not
offer more than this, many of these people drift away from Deism. Just
look at the number of people registered on discussion boards, and then
look at how many are actually active. I believe that Deism must offer
more if it is to thrive as a belief system.
Why do Deists believe so many different things? That
is not so hard to explain. Deism has no tenets or dogma. There are no
Deist clergy telling us how to behave or think. There are no sacred
texts. There is no authority anywhere telling Deists what they must
think. Deists are expected to figure it out for themselves. How could
Deists ever think alike? Deists have early classical Deist authors to
study, they have websites to visit, and they have discussion groups
where they can read and exchange ideas about Deism, but they have no
"thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots". Deists reach their own
conclusions.
So it is not so hard to figure out why Deists,
subtly or dramatically, differ in what they believe. What is probably
harder to understand is why people who believe so many different
things still call themselves Deists.