I find many of the same problems with deism as I do with your typical theism.
It's an anthropomorphization of man. It's a creating of God, as creator, in our own image.
We have the ability to discriminate, measure, calculate, and design because of our brain, which arose through evolution in our environment. We developed these faculties to survive. Reasonably, we know this complex system of calculating and measuring arose over billions of years of evolution, from simple to complex. If God has the ability to discriminate and calculate, where did God gain the composition to do so? Did God evolve? Is God an atheist?
Taoism and other Easterners see God/Tao differently. When you sleep you withdraw from the senses into a state beyond measurements. There's no up or down, left or right, no space or time, within your being; only an intrinsic nature. When you begin to dream the substance of mind arranges itself into forms, people, trees, mountains, animals, etc. You didn't design these dream worlds by calculated reason, but your intrinsic nature began, spontaneously, to self-arrange into worlds. Instead of designing by a calculation, you gave rise according to your nature. This is also an anthropomorphization of a different kind, but it answers the infinite regression better, as this intrinsic source could be simple, beyond calculation.
It seems there's something everlasting that gives rise to worlds. I think it's something fairly simple, and within this simplicity is the intrinsic nature to grow into complexity. Spinoza, Aristotle, Buddha, etc., believed the source to be pure being substance, which is beyond the calculating mind of man. It's like a man who withdraws from his senses and finds the bliss of union with pure being, beyond thought and beyond calculation. Yet, from this vibrating pure being arises forms innumerable. The Hindu's call it "Aum/OM." Spinoza and Aristotle call this the "expression" of God's nature, whose vibrations of pure being become the worlds. And, interestingly, String Theory, is now pointing to a Universe of pure vibrations!
I, personally, hold to the idea of there being one substance of pure Being. By its intrinsic nature it grows. The Hindu's call God Brahman, which means the growing or expanding one. This nature grows from simple to complex, becoming galaxies, suns, solar systems, planets, and people. When this being becomes a man, it loses sight of its unified and undivided nature. Identified with form objects and the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and discriminating thought it is lost within a world of seeming individuality and death. If the man will dis-identify with form objects, and withdraw from the senses, he enters into a state beyond thought of pure bliss being; in this samadhi he realizes his true everlasting and unified substance.
He realizes Satcitananada Brahman - Pure bliss being of the undivided nature. He knows with the "I" of the body passes away, the "I" of all remains everlasting, giving rise to this vast play of elements and forms. Anyways, I don't think God created the world, I think God became the world. His eyes, ears, mouths, and bodies are countless. And beyond the confines of the body Brahman is known, everlasting - omnipresent, omniscient.
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Topic: Deism (Read 1476 times)
