No we don't. I repeatedly tell you people I'm a Deist, but per Standard Operating Procedure, you never listen.
Nor am I intolerant. Respecting someone else's beliefs means respecting their right to HAVE those beliefs, not respecting the validity of the beliefs themselves. Young-Earth Creationists, Flat-Earthers, Gene Ray, and Joe who comes into the library and thinks my name is Dave, all have the right to believe those things. They are still all wrong, however. I leave them alone and generally do not tell them they are stupid to their faces (even when they do not do the same to me). I tolerate them. (Mostly because it would inconvenience me more to do anything else about them.)
If you take this 'new' definition of 'tolerance' and apply it to anything besides religion, it falls apart imediately. Therefore it is not valid... unless you are so foolish as to be willing to 'accept as valid' some paranoid's 'belief' that you've been possessed by braineating aliens and must be destroyed to protect humanity.
quote:"...Deism and any others which do not require the active presence of a Deity..."
Erm... Deism certainly does require a deity, by definition.
ACTIVE PRESENCE. Read it again. The basic foundation of Deism is that while a God-being may have set the universe in motion, it is not currently involved in its day-to-day workings, has left no text or rules to follow, does not answer prayers or perform miracles, and is in no way involved with your life.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
posted
So why, praytell, did God create the universe, in your philosophy?
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
He/she/it was bored out of his/her/its friggin' mind.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I Don't Know. Nobody does. Somebody may someday, but it won't be us.
Now, if you want me to GUESS, based on what I'D have done if _I_ were in "God's" position, at the dawn of time (this being the best anyone who isn't God can to, using their own comparative reasoning), I'd say a combination of the following three attributes (assuming that God is 'like us' enough to have common emotional attributes, something you cannot deny since your own books of belief describe 'Him' as being capable of jealousy, hatred, love, compassion, and regret):
Loneliness Boredom Curiosity
Being alone in an empty universe for an eternity cannot be a pleasant concept, I think. A sane being would want companionship, even that of lower life forms.
The same goes for an alleviation of boredom. The Universe is an amazingly complex place, yet amazingly simple at the same time. It makes for interesting viewing.
Same for curiosity. 'What would happen if I do this?' is an impulse almost irresistable to humans , and seems to be comment to the more intelligent animals, as well. The universe is full of experimental possibilities.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Send it back to the airport with F-16's as an escort!!
We've been hijacked!!
So anyway...
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
You're just babbling incoherently. ~C. Montgomery Burns
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