The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them. — George Bernard Shaw, playwright
How does Deism help us live better lives and be better people? I think reason, nature and experience are key not only to Deism, but to life itself. Take the quote above. There is nothing particularly Deistic about it at first glance. But think further. We are born with intelligence and reasoning powers. They are part of our human nature. Ingenuity, inventiveness and imagination are part of our nature. We also have many negative qualities in our natural makeup. There are, unfortunately, people who sit on their backside and let opportunity pass them by. Then they complain about how unfair life is. What makes sense? I believe that using reason to recognize and emphasize the positive qualities over the negative makes us better persons and makes the human race better across the board. Deists just require their religion to make sense along with everything else they choose.
As mankind has seen the advantages that cooperation brings, we have long gathered together and built societies. When hunter-gatherers saw the advantages agriculture provided, civilization was born. It is in our nature to try to make life better, and the general direction for the development of our civilization has been to the better. Individually and collectively, we sometimes misstep, and something that we think will lead to making our lives better actually makes things worse. We learn from our experiences, and try not to make the same mistakes twice. When we fail to learn from our experiences, we regress as individuals and as a species.
If you are a Deist, try this experiment. Take a quote that you find meaningful, one that rings true and offers wisdom. Better yet, make sure that quote is an affirmation, something very positive. Look at that quote through Deist eyes. How can your chosen bit of wisdom improve your life? Is it consistent with your Deist worldview? What does this exercise tell you about your worldview? This exercise will take practice. It is worth the time. Remember: it is your understanding of life, nature and God that counts with Deism. With organized religions you are supposed to just accept your religion’s tenets and views as your own. Not doing so is “wrong”. It is a sin to not believe exactly as you are told. You must believe what someone else tells you is the word of God. Acceptance of tenets or dogma is not optional if you want to remain true to an organized religion’s beliefs. Such is not the case with Deism. You are responsible for deciding what makes sense to you. To me, believing nonsense is just not an attractive prospect. I will decide which principles I should live by, ones that are best for me, my family and, in my opinion, for society. Interestingly, when given the choice, a Deist tends to make choices that are similar to those of other Deists. That makes sense. What is reasonable is reasonable. Still, we Deists have the freedom of choice. We are servants only to reason and common sense, not to a church or a sacred text or anything the clergy claims to be the will of God.
As we progress in our Deist spirituality we grow in many ways. M. Scott Peck describes four stages of human spiritual development. By Peck’s definition, Deists would be at Stage III on the path to enlightenment. Peck was a Christian, not a Deist, but in his definition of Stage III, he describes Deism perfectly. So if by becoming Deists we achieve Stage III spirituality, how then do we progress to Stage IV (which seems desirable)?
Peck uses Christian, Sufi and Zen mystics as examples of Stage IV spirituality, but when we examine his definition for Stage IV – … the stage where an individual starts enjoying the mystery and beauty of nature. While retaining skepticism, he starts perceiving grand patterns in nature… – we see a clear path for Deists to progress spiritually. I can, for instance, look back now at Christianity with a certain serenity and acceptance, not of the literalist and fundamentalist view of Christ, but the wonderful lessons that we can learn from the Christ story. Christ’s message is part of the overall celebration of our human spirituality. As Peck puts it, “not …mythological stories interpreted as literal accounts, but rather as one loving the whole, the outcasts, overcoming prejudices, incorporating inclusiveness and unconditional love, this, with the courage to be as oneself – that is what I must follow for my salvation.” In Peck’s description we see that we don’t have to have some special or magical redemption to arrive at salvation.
When Deists look at the world through eyes that understand that nature is the ultimate arbiter in life, and reason is the best way to make sense of things, we come to many realizations. We begin to understand that no one has a monopoly on truth. If anyone tells you that they do possess the only real truth, they are probably telling to think just like they do. I think that as we progress spiritually we find that natural religion is the basis for all religion. Even the revealed religions have a lot of value if we discard the literalist and fundamentalist interpretations that have been supplied by the clergy over the years. And then as we grow as Deists I think we find that even reason is not enough. Some people cannot distinguish reason from rationalization. When we open our Deist eyes to all the possibilities we begin to see our commonalities with other belief systems. I believe we become less judgmental, more intuitive and more accepting. When we look at life through Deist eyes we come to know that nature is speaking to us, just not with words. I believe that is how God communicates; otherwise, how would we hear? What language would God use?
The most spiritual people I know attain a type of serenity that tells you they have moved past religious strife and conflict. The most spiritual people I know don’t get hung up on literal interpretations of any religious texts. They lead by example, and you end up wanting to follow them. You follow because what they say rings true to you. And when you look at these spiritual people through Deist eyes you tend to choose those whose message not only rings true, but it also is grounded in common sense. That is our Deist heritage.
