LogFAQs > #928800773

Deism isn't popular for a few reasons.

1. It's inherently an unfalsifiable position. The deist and the atheist have effectively the same position. The atheist posits that there is no god or there is no reason to believe in one, and the deist posits there is a non-intervening god. A god such as that might as well not exist.

2. The deist position still has the trouble of distinguishing god from a physical force. So from a deist perspective, it still ascribes motivation and agency to the creator of the universe. Once again, no reason whatsoever for this. How do they distinguish it from just a phenomenon?

3. Any philosophy utilizing a deist outlook on life effectively ignores god anyway. So even if you are a diest, there is no real reason to ever talk about it, because god is a non-factor in literally anything observable. Thus you won't have people picking up from other thinkers because serious deist thinkers don't talk about their deism.

Basically deism is theism without the warm fuzzy feeling of being special. It's more LIKELY than theism, purely because of the fewer amount of assumptions you have to make, but there is no reason to believe that it is a better or closer philosophy than weak or even strong atheism. And with none of the mental benefits that theism can possibly provide, it's really is a belief system not particularly worth mulling over.
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"I'm not racist but, BLM sure did make me racist." -Skasa
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