Religious Deism – Filling a religious void while taking the best from deism, Christianity and even agnosticism

Religious Deism offers an alternative theology that has the potential to fill the void between Christianity and atheism as a viable third option, one that can bring more people to God and help a very large part of the population return to religion, a salvation theology, and a more or less Christian-based morality that their parents and forefathers followed without the contradictions of Christian theology. In a nutshell, it´s appeal to and focus on real hope and reason, two things that Christianity, secular deism, and atheism cannot offer, should resonate with less dogmatic people. As a result, we believe that this will allow Religious Deism to meet its core goal of creating an option that brings more people to God in general and more people who have walked away from revealed religion back to God.

While Religious Deism is a theological alternative to Christianity and atheism, it also has some important, resonating similarities that people might not be aware of. Let me describe these similarities from the most to the least deistic of these options, similarities that demonstrate that the hope and reason-based RD theology is just as natural and human in its tone and characteristics – if not more so - as any of the other traditional theologies.

Like Christianity, RD theology establishes a belief in one God, a benevolent, perfect and all-powerful God, a reckoning with a purgatory of sorts, an afterlife with God, hope in the next world, and religious faith when it does not contradict reason and logic. RDs like Christians are non-relativist in their moral stances and pro-organized religion in its outlook. Like Christians, RDs pray a version of the Christian Our Father (Religious Deism “Maywe” Our Father prayer) and believe in almost all aspects of Christian morality, especially the 7 Virtues (Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, Humility), the 7 Cardinal Sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth/Acedia, Wrath, Envy, Pride/Vanity), and the 4 Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Courage).

Like secular or classical deism, RDs believe in one God, a perfect and all powerful God, the importance of reason and logic in theology, and the non-intervention of God on earth. Like agnostics, RDs have theological doubts and accept that there are no empirical proofs of the existence of God or the afterlife. Likewise, RDs are agnostic about Jesus being the Son of God in the same way that agnostics are about the existence of God. Like atheists, RDs are humanists of sorts, and the RD sacred search for theological contradictionlessness is similar to the dedication that many atheists have for the search for the truth about humanity and the universe. And, like atheists, agnostics, and classical deists, RDs believe in the use of empirical proofs to determine the divinity of Jesus, legitimacy of earthly issues including religious truth, the lack of intervention by any God or any spirit on earth, and in the separation of religion and state.

We have created a comparative table that describes those elements of Christianity, secular deism and atheism/agnosticism that can be found in Religious Deism, and those elements that RD does not include or rejects.