Reply To: Okay, Nerdy Keith, I'll bite: Why would someone be a deist?

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Nerdy Keith wrote:

If God exists where exactly it exists is unknown to us. Outside space and time is a possibility I’m open to; as many have claimed to believe. For all I know the God of nature could have its own separate universe within a multiverse; but that would be speculating too much

I don’t agree that believing in God as the same as magic. If I where a Christian who believed in miracles; you’d have a point there. Because miracles are basically a form of witchcraft when you think about it.

I suppose the best way I can explain this to you is would be to say; that the alleged acts of the God of nature may sound like magic to human beings. But to more primitive human beings of the past; the science and technology we have today would seem like magic. If we could travel back in time to the dark ages or even the 1600s and show the common human an iPhone; I think we can both imagine what their reaction might be. Another point is that typically most deists believe that the God of nature works in accordance with nature; without deviation from what we have learned about and see in nature. Something a theistic believer cannot claim (although they dishonesty attempt to)

At this point I just can’t accept that life is just the physical. I will have to do more research on the topic; but thats where I am at right now.

What does “outside space and time” mean? For you to mean something by saying it, it must first mean something, so explain please. By my understanding of time, where there’s no time there’s no activity because activity is how we mark the passage of time. If there were no time, how did God ever get off the mark to start making the universe?

If God can pull a universe out of nothing, he’s a magician by most definitions. What is your definition of “magician”? If he’s not a magician, he’s a miracle-maker, but you don’t seem to believe in miracles, either.

If God can make a universe and he’s not a magician or miracle-maker, then he’s a grand technician. Where and how did he gain this knowledge and from whom?

You say “…most deists believe that the God of nature works in accordance with nature; without deviation from what we have learned about and see in nature.” Did nature pre-exist the universe or even God? Your phrasing suggest so. It would seem that nature was there and God decided to obey its rules.

“At this point I just can’t accept that life is just the physical. I will have to do more research on the topic; but thats where I am at right now.” Why can’t you accept that the world is matter and what happens in matter (an epiphenomenon of matter, in other words). The mind, for example, is an epiphenomenon of the brain. No brain, no mind. By the same token, if God has a mind he needs a body and a brain. Saying, “No he isn’t subject to physical law and he exists beyond space and time” is just a bunch of words with no meaning at all. It’s a non-explanation.