Tuesday 10 May 2016

Summary of four worldviews: 3. Deism

DEISM:  the universe was created in a Big Bang and set in motion by God, who chooses not to, or is unable to  intervene in its progression under the physical laws, and perhaps moral laws, that God has imparted.

 Creation of universe: God

Duration of universe : finite

Future of universe: heat death  according to 2nd Law of Thermodynamics

Afterlife:  unknown, good or bad. 

Basis for universal morality: yes, providing this was part of God's intent, i..e assuming God decided to imbue humans with a conscience. No proof or guidance of how we should view or treat each other beyond what we feel this conscience (if the Deist God implanted it) tells us.

Hope for individual: all depends on luck, how well you are able to use the abilities you have been dealt and how well you are able to exploit others. Hope, but with no assurance, that there is an afterlife which is good and that our conscience directs us in whatever direction God wants us to go.

Fears of individual: illness, accidents, poverty, natural disasters.  Fear of loss of friends and relatives. Fear of a bad eternal afterlife.

Free will:  Yes, if God has imbued humans with a conscience.

Social order: yes, providing God has imbued us with a conscience which is compatible with it. No guidance from God on what form  government should take, e.g. tyranny or democracy. Any dictator can invoke this ultimate God to justify his actions.

Justice: arbitrarily dispensed in this life. Could be corrected in the afterlife (if there is one)  but  nobody knows what God expects or even if God expects anything at all of us. Justice could be just a social construct.
 
Truth:  Yes in science but could just be a social construct anywhere else. 

Science and technology: Yes, because the laws have been built into God's created order. Intelligence could be  a basic property. Our business is to uncover the laws and attributes of nature since we have been given curiosity and the desire to ever improve our material well being.


John Sears
author

reach me at
cosmik.jo@gmail.com