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    Author Topic: Part of the atheist's identity?  (Read 410 times)
    Metis
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    « Reply #15 on: November 27, 2009, 01:28:03 PM »

    Metis:

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    I'm not certain what you mean by "Enlightenment-style". 

    Late 18th century enlightenment style of Deism would have been the "God as watchmaker" belief. Deists acknowledged a creator God (which would have ruled them out as "non-theists" by your description), but they believed He set the creation in motion, so to speak, stepped back, and let the natural laws, which He also created, to run the machine that we call the universe. Their comparison of Him was to a watchmaker who creates the watch, but doesn't need to take an active part in its workings. The gears and wheels the watchmaker created would do the rest.

    It was an interesting compromise for the Enlightenment era, ca 1700-1850, in which people were backing away from the miraculous/faith explanation as to why all that happens can be explained by God's intervention in His creation, without actually denying the Creator's existence.

    Thanks, Howie.  Actually I didn't realize there was any other kid of Deist than what you described.  I learn something new every day, which probably indicates that I forget what I've learned every day.  Undecided
    Logged

    "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein
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