That is, a set of beliefs that there was/is an intelligent original creator that set the laws up (gravity, light, pop = bad) and just let it rip to see what would happen. Didn’t/doesn’t interact with us in any way and really doesn’t care what we do while we’re here and then when we die, that’s pretty much it!
And don’t say Raelians. Somebody had to create the extraterrestrials.
It’s called Deism..
basically, Deism says that God created the universe and set up the laws but does not intervene after that.
Deist? I don’t think it’a an organized religion, but many of the US “Founding Fathers” were perportedly Deists-- or were they Theists?
http://www.bartleby.com/81/16392.html
"A theist believes there is a God who made and governs all creation; but does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor in a divine revelation.
A deist believes there is a God who created all things, but does not believe in His superintendence and government. He thinks the Creator implanted in all things certain immutable laws, called the Laws of Nature, which act per se, as a watch acts without the supervision of its maker. Like the theist, he does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor in a divine revelation. "
Hmm…Deism does have a moral system, though. Maybe you’re describing something closer to existentialism. Let’s call it existential Deism.
“A deist believes there is a God who created all things, but does not believe in His superintendence and government. He thinks the Creator implanted in all things certain immutable laws, called the Laws of Nature, which act per se, as a watch acts without the supervision of its maker. Like the theist, he does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor in a divine revelation.”
I like that one.
Theism is usually a more general concept, just menaing ‘belives in god’. Sometimes its used to contrast deism and is defined as believing in a god who transcends his creation via revelation. If anything a theist is mor likely to belive in the trinity
Voltaire fashioned himself a “deist”. I’ll go hunt down a cite for that.
Deism was as far as they could go back then in terms of ignoring the existence of the Christian god without being an atheist.
Ben Franklin is probably the best-known deist among the founding fathers. Deism was quite popular among many Enlightenment figures, as it is a position that is very amenable to a belief in a divine being that created the universe, as well as to the notion that the world runs according to fixed, predictable natural laws that human beings can study and understand in order to influence the world around them.