Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thomas Paine Day


Happy Birthday Thomas Paine! (January 29, 1737 – June 8, 1809)

You helped shape nations, including our own, and your writings have inspired us for over 200 years.

Today we honor you!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

So Now What?

It has been months since my last post to this blog. It's not that I don't want to add more. Nor is it that I don't have any further ideas to share. It's almost as if I kind of "got it out of my system" - like I ran a sprint instead of a marathon. But I don't want to be one of "those" bloggers. You know, they make one or two posts and that's it forever.

This eye opening conversion to Deism still consumes me. Almost every waking moment I draw comparisons to what is now, for me, and what was then. I see the inspirational billboards for a Christian church. I see the old shopping strips where three out of seven stores are actually a "church". (If still a Christian, I could never do the shopping strip store front church thing, by the way. And yes I understand that it's not the building, but the people who make the church. Whatever ... that's not a church to me.) The giant electric billboard-type sign outside another church flashing a well known Aesop quote as if it's biblical. The construction of a new church near an affluent part of town, with the biggest concrete cross in the state, I would think, complete with neon highlights. Jewish leaders running radio ads condemning the trouble in the middle east. The middle east fighting their perpetual wars in the name of Allah. (Seriously, is it so ingrained that you cannot even consider peace?!) The revealed religions continue to march on.

So now what for Deism? No question we need to share our story - we have so much to offer humanity. We have wisdom, we have peace, we have inspiration and hope and love. But how do we share these aspects with the world? This challenge is made more difficult because of a couple of our fundamental precepts - no dogma and no revealed texts. For instance I feel more wise and totally at peace with my belief in Deism. I feel more inspiration and hope and love then at any other point in my life. Not because of the untruths from man made religions of old, but because of the truths I have discovered thanks to Deism, science, books and the internet; and the likes of Paine, Jefferson and Johnson.

Perhaps what we should do in Deism is simply march on as well. Let's share our principles and history every chance we get.



One Deist Φ