Definitions

Here’s the big one!  There has been a revolution since the dawn of Deism regarding the principles of consciousness and for a religion like Deism, that should foster a revolution in Deism.  Deism is different than “religious traditions” in that Deism must evolve as our knowledge evolves.  At the dawn of the Age of Reason, Deists believed one could only know God via the scientific study of Creation (intellectually).  Modern Deists are more likely to include the possibility of knowing God “intuitively” as well as “intellectually”.  As an introverted intuitive in the Jungian sense, that particularly appeals to me.

Put succinctly, this is my working definition of a Deist: Deist: One whose belief in God is based on rational intuition.  The classical definition has always been something like: God made the universe and like a clock wound it up and walked away to let it run its course.  That doesn’t work for most Deists because in studying Nature, we see a God who is so much more intimate with Creation than was conceived of by that definition.

In my case, from the time I was first allowed to roam around and play in the woods, it was an intensely magical place.  

 

Supertramp put it far better than I ever could in The Logical Song:
“When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful; a miracle, oh, it was beautiful, magical and all the birds in the trees, well, they’d be singing so happily oh, joyfully, oh playfully watching me…”

 

Slowly, I began to awaken to an unseen, but clearly felt, presence there as well as within me…

Photo: A soaring buteo against a Winter sky ©2024