Posted by Kromey at 3:46pm Sep 5 '06I was going to post this within the thread below, "Deism, God without religion" (I take exception to this title - Deism is, in fact, a religion), then decided that it deserves its own thread entirely.
The following are two seperate essays I've written in an attempt to explain my own personal take on Deism to those who don't understand my beliefs. No part of this should be taken as Deist gospel or dogma because, as I've stressed below, no such thing exists. This is just my personal flavor of Deism, and is very likely heavily influenced by a dash of Existentialism.
Deism: The Nutshell
I am a Deist.
And every time I tell someone that, I get asked what a Deist is. Others, after getting the "Reader's Digest" version, have expressed an interest in a further explanation of Deism.
Hence this series of essays. "Deism: The Nutshell" is the first in what I hope to be a series of essays on the Deist beliefs and how those beliefs govern how I live my life. This essay will explain the basic premises behind Deism, from the Deist Creation to the Deist Worldview, in an in-depth and understandable way.
First, it is necessary to explain the difference between deism and Deism. Like communism versus Communism, the difference is subtle yet important. The first of these, "deism", is "a system of thought advocating natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation" (Webster's Dictionary). This is a general term that can refer to any number of religions, much as "pagan" can refer to any number of religions. However, just as there is also a specific religion known as Paganism, there is also a specific religion known as Deism.
I am, by definition, a deist; more specifically, however, I am a Deist in that I adhere to the beliefs of the specific religion of Deism. In much the same way a Christian may or may not be a Catholic.
So what is Deism?
To put it very simply, Deism is the conglomeration of Evolutionist Creationism, the Newtonian World Clock or Machine, and Chaos. To understand Deism, it is necessary to understand these three basic concepts that form the foundation of this faith.
Evolutionist Creationism can be seen as the middle ground between Evolutionism and Creationism. While Creationists hold that God created the heavens, the earth, and all the animals that inhabit both, Evolutionists hold that the earth was created over millions of years from matter scattered by the Big Bang, and that all life evolved from a primordial soup that happened to form on a planet suitable for the birth of life.
Evolutionist Creationism takes both sides, arguing that God created the universe but not the life that inhabits it; all He did was set in motion the physical laws that govern the universe and the universe has evolved in accordance with these laws. This is the view that Deists hold, although I hesitate to call this founding being "God" because it could be construed as a belief in the Judeo-Christian God. Rather Deists believe that some supreme being created this universe and then left it to its own devices.
And thus we have the Newtonian World Clock, a machine with countless cogs and gears each doing what they were designed to do and interacting how they were designed to. The Newtonian World Machine says that the world exists on its own, without the outside influence of any omnipotent being. Physical laws exist and drive the machine, just as gears and springs drive a clock exactly as it was designed to. Deists believe that the world can be described and understood entirely by physics, that there exists a finite number of simple laws that, when put together in infinitely complex ways, drive the machine in predictable patterns.
Well, nearly predictable. The third element of Deism, Chaos, is the concept that random chance is involved in everything. Absolutely everything. From picking the winning Lotto numbers to the exact path of a thrown baseball to the very birth of life itself, random chance exists in everything. Part of this random chance is from the fact that there are always unknown variables (such as the number of smoke particles and their exact positions as that baseball collides with them on its course), and part is simply pure randomness. There is a fundamental law in statistics, the Law of Large Numbers, that essentially states, "No matter how small the probability, given enough trials every outcome is not only probable but inevitable." Thus Deists often find it hard not to laugh when Creationists site the huge statistical improbability of life simply evolving out of nothing.
These three ideas, which will be explored in much more depth in later essays, are the basic ideas behind Deism; we believe that a supreme being created the universe, set down the natural laws, and then left it to its own devices: Evolutionist Creationism and the Newtonian World Machine, a combination also known as the Great Experiment. Deists also firmly believe in the randomness of Chaos, and that so long as there exists a possibility of something happening, no matter how small, it will eventually happen.
Guaranteed.
Thus Deists can state with absolute certainty that not only is it possible that life can evolve, but it is in fact inevitable over a long enough period of time. "An infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters..."
Just as Christians believe in Creationism, Deists believe in the Great Experiment; and just as Christians are certain that their God is with them always, Deists are certain that Chaos is around them always. A Christian looks at a [private] of grass and sees the beauty of the Lord's work of Creation; a Deist looks at the same [private] of grass and is equally impressed by the certainty of Chaos in the Great Experiment.
Chaos: Certainty of Uncertainty
Chaos is the single must misunderstood or overlooked power in the universe. The name carries with it connotations of fantastical magic attached to it by fantasy and science fiction stories and games, but the underlying concept is the lynchpin in Deism.
In my earlier essay, "Deism: The Nutshell," I made the somewhat erroneous statement that with enough understanding of the physical laws everything is predictable. This is not entirely accurate, as everything that happens involves some level of Chaos, and thus is without pattern, which makes it unpredictable.
Chaos is simply pure, random chance. Take a coin and flip it. You'll get either heads or tails - that much is predictable. Which one you get, however, is a matter randomness, a matter of probablities. With a coin, you have about a 50% chance of getting a heads. Roll a 6-sided die and you have about a 17% chance of getting a 1; with a 100-sided die, you have a 1% chance. Roll your 6-sided die 100 times, and you can expect to see 17 1s; roll the 100-sided die 100 times and you can expect 1 1. No matter how many sides you add to your die, if you roll it enough times you will get a 1 eventually.
This is one of the fundamental principles in Chaos, known to statisticians as the Law of Large Numbers. Overlooking this basic principle is the flaw in every Creationistic argumet against Evolutionism that I have ever heard. It is the Law of Large Numbers that essentially ridicules the Creationists' argument that Evolutionism cannot have happened because it is statistically "impossible" for the complex life we see today to be the result of random combinations; the flaw here is that there is no such thing as "statistically impossible" over enough trials because of the Law of Large Numbers. Chaos is what proves Evolution and disproves Creationism.
However, Chaos is not the god-like influence of the same name portrayed in any number of fantasy and science-fiction stories and games. Rather, it is a simple universal law, much like gravity, with no greater influence than what is allowed it by other laws. Gravity loses its effectiveness the farther seperated two bodies are; in much the same way, Chaos loses its effectiveness the fewer variables exist in any given reaction. But also like gravity, Chaos' influence does exist in every reaction because, by definition, variables exist in every reaction.
Thus, Chaos is merely another law of the universe, another cog in the World Machine, but it is the law that is most misunderstood and underconsidered. Chaos is the law that breaks all other laws, by doing so ensuring that the World Machine operates smoothly as it should. Chaos is the contradiction and the consolidation within Deism, and is perhaps the greatest obstacle a Deist has to being understood by others - I know I've had more trouble explaining Chaos than explaining any other concept of Deism. Perhaps this difficulty lies in the fact that most people simply have no frame of reference nor concept from which they can even begin to grasp Chaos.
The only way to truly understand Chaos is to leap into it and embrace it.
The following are two seperate essays I've written in an attempt to explain my own personal take on Deism to those who don't understand my beliefs. No part of this should be taken as Deist gospel or dogma because, as I've stressed below, no such thing exists. This is just my personal flavor of Deism, and is very likely heavily influenced by a dash of Existentialism.
Deism: The Nutshell
I am a Deist.
And every time I tell someone that, I get asked what a Deist is. Others, after getting the "Reader's Digest" version, have expressed an interest in a further explanation of Deism.
Hence this series of essays. "Deism: The Nutshell" is the first in what I hope to be a series of essays on the Deist beliefs and how those beliefs govern how I live my life. This essay will explain the basic premises behind Deism, from the Deist Creation to the Deist Worldview, in an in-depth and understandable way.
First, it is necessary to explain the difference between deism and Deism. Like communism versus Communism, the difference is subtle yet important. The first of these, "deism", is "a system of thought advocating natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation" (Webster's Dictionary). This is a general term that can refer to any number of religions, much as "pagan" can refer to any number of religions. However, just as there is also a specific religion known as Paganism, there is also a specific religion known as Deism.
I am, by definition, a deist; more specifically, however, I am a Deist in that I adhere to the beliefs of the specific religion of Deism. In much the same way a Christian may or may not be a Catholic.
So what is Deism?
To put it very simply, Deism is the conglomeration of Evolutionist Creationism, the Newtonian World Clock or Machine, and Chaos. To understand Deism, it is necessary to understand these three basic concepts that form the foundation of this faith.
Evolutionist Creationism can be seen as the middle ground between Evolutionism and Creationism. While Creationists hold that God created the heavens, the earth, and all the animals that inhabit both, Evolutionists hold that the earth was created over millions of years from matter scattered by the Big Bang, and that all life evolved from a primordial soup that happened to form on a planet suitable for the birth of life.
Evolutionist Creationism takes both sides, arguing that God created the universe but not the life that inhabits it; all He did was set in motion the physical laws that govern the universe and the universe has evolved in accordance with these laws. This is the view that Deists hold, although I hesitate to call this founding being "God" because it could be construed as a belief in the Judeo-Christian God. Rather Deists believe that some supreme being created this universe and then left it to its own devices.
And thus we have the Newtonian World Clock, a machine with countless cogs and gears each doing what they were designed to do and interacting how they were designed to. The Newtonian World Machine says that the world exists on its own, without the outside influence of any omnipotent being. Physical laws exist and drive the machine, just as gears and springs drive a clock exactly as it was designed to. Deists believe that the world can be described and understood entirely by physics, that there exists a finite number of simple laws that, when put together in infinitely complex ways, drive the machine in predictable patterns.
Well, nearly predictable. The third element of Deism, Chaos, is the concept that random chance is involved in everything. Absolutely everything. From picking the winning Lotto numbers to the exact path of a thrown baseball to the very birth of life itself, random chance exists in everything. Part of this random chance is from the fact that there are always unknown variables (such as the number of smoke particles and their exact positions as that baseball collides with them on its course), and part is simply pure randomness. There is a fundamental law in statistics, the Law of Large Numbers, that essentially states, "No matter how small the probability, given enough trials every outcome is not only probable but inevitable." Thus Deists often find it hard not to laugh when Creationists site the huge statistical improbability of life simply evolving out of nothing.
These three ideas, which will be explored in much more depth in later essays, are the basic ideas behind Deism; we believe that a supreme being created the universe, set down the natural laws, and then left it to its own devices: Evolutionist Creationism and the Newtonian World Machine, a combination also known as the Great Experiment. Deists also firmly believe in the randomness of Chaos, and that so long as there exists a possibility of something happening, no matter how small, it will eventually happen.
Guaranteed.
Thus Deists can state with absolute certainty that not only is it possible that life can evolve, but it is in fact inevitable over a long enough period of time. "An infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters..."
Just as Christians believe in Creationism, Deists believe in the Great Experiment; and just as Christians are certain that their God is with them always, Deists are certain that Chaos is around them always. A Christian looks at a [private] of grass and sees the beauty of the Lord's work of Creation; a Deist looks at the same [private] of grass and is equally impressed by the certainty of Chaos in the Great Experiment.
Chaos: Certainty of Uncertainty
Chaos is the single must misunderstood or overlooked power in the universe. The name carries with it connotations of fantastical magic attached to it by fantasy and science fiction stories and games, but the underlying concept is the lynchpin in Deism.
In my earlier essay, "Deism: The Nutshell," I made the somewhat erroneous statement that with enough understanding of the physical laws everything is predictable. This is not entirely accurate, as everything that happens involves some level of Chaos, and thus is without pattern, which makes it unpredictable.
Chaos is simply pure, random chance. Take a coin and flip it. You'll get either heads or tails - that much is predictable. Which one you get, however, is a matter randomness, a matter of probablities. With a coin, you have about a 50% chance of getting a heads. Roll a 6-sided die and you have about a 17% chance of getting a 1; with a 100-sided die, you have a 1% chance. Roll your 6-sided die 100 times, and you can expect to see 17 1s; roll the 100-sided die 100 times and you can expect 1 1. No matter how many sides you add to your die, if you roll it enough times you will get a 1 eventually.
This is one of the fundamental principles in Chaos, known to statisticians as the Law of Large Numbers. Overlooking this basic principle is the flaw in every Creationistic argumet against Evolutionism that I have ever heard. It is the Law of Large Numbers that essentially ridicules the Creationists' argument that Evolutionism cannot have happened because it is statistically "impossible" for the complex life we see today to be the result of random combinations; the flaw here is that there is no such thing as "statistically impossible" over enough trials because of the Law of Large Numbers. Chaos is what proves Evolution and disproves Creationism.
However, Chaos is not the god-like influence of the same name portrayed in any number of fantasy and science-fiction stories and games. Rather, it is a simple universal law, much like gravity, with no greater influence than what is allowed it by other laws. Gravity loses its effectiveness the farther seperated two bodies are; in much the same way, Chaos loses its effectiveness the fewer variables exist in any given reaction. But also like gravity, Chaos' influence does exist in every reaction because, by definition, variables exist in every reaction.
Thus, Chaos is merely another law of the universe, another cog in the World Machine, but it is the law that is most misunderstood and underconsidered. Chaos is the law that breaks all other laws, by doing so ensuring that the World Machine operates smoothly as it should. Chaos is the contradiction and the consolidation within Deism, and is perhaps the greatest obstacle a Deist has to being understood by others - I know I've had more trouble explaining Chaos than explaining any other concept of Deism. Perhaps this difficulty lies in the fact that most people simply have no frame of reference nor concept from which they can even begin to grasp Chaos.
The only way to truly understand Chaos is to leap into it and embrace it.