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Title: Religion and Spirituality/Deism - Deism Advocated in the Bible Series of articles finds strains of Deism in some books of the Bible.
Deism_and_Reason Surveys and espouses traditional Deism. E-text resources and Deist quotations.

Deism_and_the_Enlightenment Class lecture notes and recommended readings.

Deism,_English Explores the Deism of Hobbes, Locke, Tindal, and the influence of Hume.

Deism,_French Brief historical survey of the development of Deism in France, as espoused by Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau.

The_Deist_Minimum Article by Avery Cardinal Dulles surveys the origins and spread of Deism with an eye towards its inherent weakness to sustain itself.

The_Deist\'s_Reply 1836 book by Lysander Spooner argues against the miracles of Jesus as found in the Gospels.


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Deism advocated in the Bible.INDEXDeism advocated in Romans and the gospels of the Bible.      Deism is a form of rationalism that holds that it is through the observation of the natural world that one comes to know of the nature of God. As Thomas Paine stated, the universe and creation are the only real ‘Bible' and these things cannot be forged. Deism is advocated in both the gospels and in the letters of Paul in the book of Romans in the Bible. That the radical school of the prophets were also deists is demonstrated by the fact that they rejected the law books and the conventional religious customs of their day.      The Bible is not a unified whole, and in the pages of the Bible you are actually presented with a complex picture of differing religious traditions in various states of development. For instance, there was a prophetic tradition, a wisdom tradition. There was also a priestly tradition. At a stage in the development of Jewish religion, it held as one of its principle doctrines that God is revealed in history.       This point of view could be considered a simple and unsophisticated form of Deism, in that 'through observing history' it is alleged that one can come to know God. Here we are assuming that God does not simply allow history to unfold but actually controls history, and that everything that happens has not simply been tolerated by God but rather ordained by God.      The idea that the Bible is at best secondary and that reason must judge scripture is the antithesis to the notion of ‘divine revelation in sacred scripture.' According to the later dogma, reason and human nature were corrupted "through Adam's sin". From that time forward no one could know the truth except by submission to the authority of scripture. In practice this has always meant submission to the authority of the highest clerics in a hierarchical system of orthodox belief and religious practice then becomes strict adherence to tradition, because scripture is contradictory, and thus requires interpretation, and thus authority becomes the means to ensure that the interpretation is held in check. Many scriptures exists, and since it is held that ‘reason' is corrupt, and unable to discern truth, one must wonder how one is to know which scripture is ‘infallible'. An appeal is usually made to blind submission to an authority on the matter, and the most archaic form of this argument states that the messiah told Peter, who told Tom, who told Dick, and so on, and now someone further down the line is telling you.       Deism is antipodal to orthodoxy and authority, since the authority of a book is rejected, and thus the authority of the church hierarchy. According to Deists it is only reasonable to assume that the universe is the first and greatest "book" and it is only reasonable to assume that God created each individual with the ability to "read".      While Deism might be anathema to hierarchical forms of religion, since it dismisses the authority of religious text and religious leaders, it is expressed in the Bible in various forms. The clearest declaration is found in the book of Romans in the first chapter: "All that can be known of God lies plain before our eyes. Indeed God has disclosed it. Ever since the world began God's invisible attributes have been visible to the eye of reason, being seen in what has been created." (Romans 1:19)       It is ironic then, that Paul, who wrote letters to churches but whom churches insist was writing ‘authoritative scripture', follows his line of reasoning to come in the end to the same conclusion arrived at by the Deists of the 17th and 18th century. He subordinates scripture and with it the authority of religious orthodoxy and exalts reason and the individual. In the following passage Paul uses the religious custom of circumcision as an example of the futility of relying on traditional religious orthodoxy, and for this reason, in order to generalize the principle and make it clear, I have substituted the word "religion" for the word ‘circumcision' and ‘not circumcised' in the following passage, the word "religious" for the word "Jewish" and occasionally, the make the point clear, I have occasionally substituted the word "Bible" for the word "Torah" (which is usually translated ‘law') to make clear that ‘the law' being spoken of in the passage is, as Paul makes clear himself, "the written code" found in the pages of the Bible. The substitutions appear between parentheses: "No one will be justified in the sight of God by hearing (the Bible); but rather by obeying the Law of God. When those who do not have (religion) do by nature what the law requires, then they are their own law (and their own religion). They show by their conduct that the requirements of the Law are written on their hearts, their own consciences now defending, now accusing them ... But as for you who (call yourself religious) and rely on the law (in the books of the Bible): you take pride in God; you know God's will; taught by the law (in the books of the Bible), you know what really matters; you are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, and a teacher of infants, because you possess in the (written books of the Bible) the embodiment of truth and knowledge. You teach others; do you not teach yourselves? ... While you take pride in (the law as revealed in the books of the Bible), you dishonor God by breaking the law. As scripture states, ‘because of you God's name is blasphemed among all the nations.' (Religious practice) has value provided that you keep God's law, but if you do not keep the law, then you become as if you have (no religion) at all. Similarly, if someone who (has no religion) keeps the precepts of God's law, will he not count as (a believer)? They may be (without religion), but by fulfilling the law they will pass judgment on you who break it, for all your written books and (religious practice). It is not externals that make one (religious) nor (religious traditions) that make one (religious). The (truly religious) are those who are inwardly (religious) and their (religion) is one of the heart, spiritual and not literal; they receive their commendation not from people but from God." (Romans 2:13)       As you can see, following the development of Paul's argument in this passage, Paul was himself a Deist, and subordinated scripture. For scripture comes from the heart, and even those who do not hold to the Bible can be ‘justified', and not only justified, but they will sit in judgment upon churches and Bible readers who have the law of God in books, but not living in their hearts. Furthermore, we must conclude that if those without the Bible have the law in their hearts, then any written law must be found to be in agreement with the law ‘understood by the light of nature'. Therefore, if the Law of human conscience states that it is wrong to rape and kill virgins, it is useless to place such corruption into a written Bible code of ‘law' and then attempt to crush the objections of the law written on the hearts of those with no Bible. And if you read the protest writings of Deists, you can see that it is exactly such atrocious and abominable ‘laws of god', found in the Bible, against which, through the light of reason and judged by the law ‘written on their hearts' that they judged both Bible and churches (just as Paul said that they would). Books were made for people, not people to serve books.      Deist beliefs are also found in the gospels. In the parables it is assumed that one knows justice, and begins with justice, and that far from being 'naturally corrupted' it is the corrupt who corrupt themselves with religious traditions, but those who 'already have' justice, become more just (all of these are deistic notions of natural law). If any man has ears to hear, let him hear." And he said to them, "Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away." "For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (Mark 4:23, Matthew 13:12 )      It is further asserted in the gospels that to accept Levitical rules from the Bible and to reject 'common sense' and natural reason (the essence of deist belief) is to be 'dim witted'. For example we find Joshua attacking the Biblical laws concerning 'unclean foods,' and then scolding his disciples for being to dimwitted to understand. "You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! ... And he called the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him." And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)" (Mark 7:8, 14)      So then, in this case, to follow the 'food laws' found in the Bible was to be following Levitical priestly traditions, and demonstrated that a person was 'without understanding.' In another deist passage the wisdom of God was said to be hidden from the wise and the clever and revealed to those who were as simple as little children. A little child might know better than to believe that 'a hare' is an unclean type of rabbit, simply because some rule said that a hare was an unclean type of rabbit. There is nothing inherently unclean about a hare, or anything else for that matter, but such things can only become unclean if one becomes 'wise and clever' and learns such things from rule books.The Campaign to Impeach George W. BushClick here for more informationRELATED PAGESRead a summary of Thomas Paines's defence of Deism and critique of the BibleThe Proverbs: Wisdom ideology as a form of primitive Deism in ancient Israel Job: The collapse of the ancient Wisdom traditionfound in the book of ProverbsDeism over simplified Romans Reinterpreted PREVIOUS PAGE: The bizarre editing of the BibleINDEX...(text)     HOMENEXT PAGE - Karma doctrine in the ancient Hebrew wisdom traditionEMAIL< BR> A Unified Field Theory failed_gravity_theory.gif - 10361 Bytes The Unified Field Theory is also available as a zip file -> unified.zip Introduction :The Pioneer Effect and the New Physics. A brief description of the new physics required to explain the 'Pioneer Effect', which is the constant deceleration of space craft as they fly through space. Principles of Evolution: A Study in the Evolution of Bedbugs A couple of years ago my bedroom was invaded by bedbugs. There were two variant genetic lines. One type of bedbug was an enlongated, thin, tubular insect, and the second genetic line was a flat, perfectly circular insect. The result of the cross breeding of these two genetically distinct variants was the production of a bedbug with charcteristics of both, an enlongated, flat bedbug with a central bulge (such that the shape of the bedbug was somewhere between 'long' and 'circular'). The long skinny bedbugs were such strange and unfamiliar looking insects that at first I did not recognize them as being bedbugs, and considered them to be a seperate species of insect. However, as the photographs of bedbugs above indicate, enlongated and skinny bedbugs are not uncommon, and the photographs also show the variants that are produced by genetic combinations that result in an insect somewhere in between 'circular' and 'enlongated'. Therefore it is my hypothesis that evolution occurs by means of the transfer of dominate genes, with the production of such dominant genes being the product of 'biological algorithms', a genetic software program that brings physical characteristics into harmony with behavior, such that when behavior changes, and a conflict then exists, this acts as a trigger and causes the release of dominant genes. The result is rapid evolution of species. The bedbug is a relatively new insect, not the product of millions of years of evolution but rather an insect that is evolving in real time. The newly emerging dominant form of the insect is the flat, round ciruclar insect, well adapted to living in human bedrooms (it is flat, rather than tubular, thus allowing it to hide in the smallest cracks, living a stealthy lifestyle, and it is round, which gives the insect a maximum storage capacity such that it must endanger itself only a few times a month by emerging to feed. Other examples of rapid evolution include the development of long legs in an invasive species of toad in Australia. As the toads move into the mountainous regions of Australia, and their behvaior changes, making them 'climbing toads', over the course of just a couple of decades the toads in the highlands have grown long legs specially adapted to climbing. It is worth noting here that the toads are poisonous, and are a successful invasive species because they have no natural predators in Australia, and so it would not be the case that the toads with long legs were 'the fittest survivors', because all the toads are survivors, and therefore predation does not explain the rapid emergence and spread of such well adapted, long legged toads. Once again we see evidence for the existence of biological algorithms and the rapid spread of dominant genes through a population, which once introduced proceed to overwhelm the older genes which are being replaced (making toad long legged and a bed bug round and flat). A Theological Experiment My interest in pursuing the Unified Field Theory is spurred on by my need to discover the theoretical explanation of a new form of propulsion (as explained on this page: Why the Unified Field Theory?). The experiment involving the bedbugs came out of nowhere. I also believe that it is possible to justify theological propositions using experimental methods. If a thing is an objective truth then it can be verified and proven true by means of experimentation. Such a theological proposition is of more value than a ‘divine revelation’, since such revelations depend upon nothing more than establishing authority figures which requires the creation of artificial hierarchies, for the only reason why I might be encouraged to believe an authority figure who orders me to believe unsubstantiated opinions is if I could somehow be convinced that this authority possessed a mind that was somehow superior to mine, and thus was fit to express opinions as though opinions were unquestionable facts and thus worthy of being elevated to the status of absolute dogma. There is a self evident human inequality which is visibly apparent. Some people are ‘beautiful’ and thus are the true elite on this planet, and some people are not. It is this ual inequality and the degeneration that follows upon beauty that is the true driving force behind all the evil that happens on earth. The need for ruthless oppression and the pursuit of wealth and the consequent creation of suffering and poverty which must follow upon this practice is for the purpose of creating an artificial alpha elite. The true elites are the young and the beautiful. The artificial elite are the rich and the wealthy. The elite aging rich artificial alpha male has no good looks, for he is physically degenerate, but he will be found escorting beauty because he has a beautiful wallet. If he loses his wallet he will be found at home with all the other unattractive aged beta males sitting in a rocking chair watching reruns of Bonanza. No money, no . It is for this reason that the alpha males are found to be so ruthless and so violent in pursuit of their goal. The alpha male has fallen. The beta male has arisen and now the whole planet is full of ruinous destruction for it. We see in religion a confused and contradictory reaction to this reality. On the one hand religion preaches a less heaven where castration and the clitorectomy create ‘pure spirits’. Muslims throw women under sacks. On the other hand religion supports hierarchy and is the prop of the elite alpha male. It is for this reason that religion is incoherent when it comes to speaking about . Now we see this same principle at work in all of nature. Guppies dance and show off their colorful tails and the guppy who dances with the most colorful tail is the ually successful guppy. Therefore it is the doctrine of the ruthless oppressor which teaches that the solution to human ual violence is to be found in castration and the creation of pure ghosts. This would be equivalent to damning an aardvark for having the ‘sinful aardvark nature’ or prosecuting an anteater for the high crime of ‘ant genocide’. Therefore it was my theological hypothesis that the correct solution to this problem is to give every guppy a beautiful colorful tail. I compare this solution to the classic religious solution which is to cut off every tail since having a tail is ‘sinful’. If having a tail is sinful then God must be sinful for no human being has any choice in deciding whether or not they would be born with a colorful tail, or whether they would not. When I was young I was a beautiful guppy with a lovely tail. So everyone seemed to think. I am older now. My nose became very badly sunburned and destroyed. It seemed good to me to test my hypothesis by using these ‘biological algorithms’ to correct this problem. I healed half my nose as you can see by the line separating the still very dark patch on the side in the photograph below. I documented my experiment on these pages. one two t hree four fi ve six I have confirmed to my own satisfaction that my theological proposition is correct and that religious dogma is erroneous, being based as it was upon nothing more than ‘divine revelation’ which is just a form of opinionated speculation. For the time being I am not continuing this experiment, for I must wait until the weather on this planet improves, and the dark clouds of ruthless oppression break letting a little sun shine come through so that I can show the world the truth about God, by showing people how God goes about giving an old guppy back his beautiful colorful tail. Until then I will have to sit on the sidelines, while all my scientific breakthroughs are deliberately ignored, while I wonder to myself what ever in the world could be wrong with the human race, because what this all will prove at the end of it all is that there definitely was something wrong with the people on this planet.
 

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Deism Advocated in the Bible 2008 December

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Series of articles finds strains of Deism in some books of the Bible.

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