One of the persons who has had a profound influence on me as
a Deist is David Pyle. Some of the things he said have stuck with me
for a long time. He felt that Deism is not only a religion; it is a
religious methodology. As we have noted, Deist beliefs vary widely. We
have no dogma that we are required to believe. So one common
denominator among Deists is the
way we arrive at what we believe. The
way we come to believe
defines us more than what we
believe. We are reasoning seekers, and we tend to seek the truth in
similar ways. According to David, we Deists tend to look at things in
the following ways:
- We never accept anything as truth if it does not make sense.
- We have faith primarily in our abilities to reason.
- We accept inspiration that we personally experience, but we view the inspiration (or revelation) of all others with skepticism.
- We tend to believe mostly what we can defend in debate with fellow seekers.
- We accept the possibility, actually the probability, that we may be wrong, and we are willing to modify our beliefs when we are wrong.
- We search for wisdom everywhere, but we use that wisdom primarily to inspire our own thoughts.
- To us, the most important ideas and thoughts are our own.
- We strive for self-honesty. We cannot reason if we cannot be honest with ourselves.
- We realize that not everyone can walk the same path we do, so we try to learn from the paths others take.
- We try always to remember that we will never achieve perfection in our beliefs, and if we ever think we have, that is the surest sign that we have not.
You can believe just some of these things or all
of these things and still be a Deist either way. When it comes right
down to it, how you make
sense out of things may more important than the conclusion you reach.
As you gather more evidence, your conclusions may change. Our approach
to life's questions is based on reason. That is why Deism is belief in
God based on reason: reason, nature and experience.
The "nature" part of the definition of Deism is
different for each of us. Some find spirituality in the wonder,
beauty, awe and power of nature. Others believe natural laws extend
beyond just the physical laws that modern science has discovered. Some
Deists emphasize human nature as a key element in understanding Deism.
Each of us must choose what we believe to be reasonable. We must
choose what makes sense in light of our worldviews.