THIS I BELIEVE/DEISM PART TWO
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I may have ended up where I needed to be.
Douglas Adams
Continuing on from my last post, here is a bit more about the faith I follow and live by. I realize Deism isn’t to everybody’s preference but it is where my path has led me to this point. For all I know I may be someplace else entirely in the future and I will accept that destiny with grace.
Deism puts people off, quite frankly. More than a few mainline conservative churches have placed this philosophy (and most other philosophy for that matter) in a very negative light for a variety of reasons. It was the philosophy of many of our greatest scientists, inventors, writers and more than a few founding fathers; Twain, Einstein, Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington are just a few of them.
But as I stated in the prior post, if I cannot come clean and say what I believe here where can I say it? So I continue onward. Don’t judge please and I will extend to you the same courtesy. We don’t have to believe in the same little details so long as we believe in the same Universal Almighty Creator that made us.
Deism has a wide range of beliefs, some more affable than others. The particular branch which I identify with – the Christian Deist Fellowship – believes along these lines:
We believe that a Divine Creator designed and created the universe and governs it through natural laws that are inherent in everything ever created. We discover these natural laws by observation, experience, study/application and reasoning. We believe that from the complex and purposeful design of the world that it is logical to infer the existence of an intelligent and intentional Creator.
Our faith and philosophy is based primarily on nature and reasoning (something akin to Transcendentalism) instead of ‘revealed’ doctrine – though far be it from me to question or judge the ‘revealed’ faiths of others, so long as we live in brotherly love and behave in a moral and ethical manner. We believe that God – one of the many names we have given our Creator in order to better relate to something beyond our very capacity to truly comprehend – gave us free will and the responsibility to choose how we live in relation to the natural laws that govern this world.
I believe that God takes an ongoing interest in the creation but due to free will does not forcibly control us; forced control would go against free will. We do have a divine purpose but are given the choice whether or not to follow it. Divine Providence has a way of intervening from time to time, put it that way. A world with free will is one which ordinarily operates as it was designed to but failures and accidents do happen. It is, in my belief, never God’s will for anything bad to happen. Anything destructive to life is usually caused by human action (direct or indirect) or by accident.
I believe as a Reiki practitioner and a believer in energy medicine that God can and does heal. God does not make us sick. We are responsible to some extent for our own health and well being. I have felt God’s power move through my hands when I’ve done healing work on others. It is not me doing the healing; it is God using me as an instrument.
I believe that we are all God’s representatives on earth if we do God’s will by loving God and loving others as Yeshua (Jesus) and others have taught throughout time. We bring about the Kingdom of God on earth by loving others as we love ourselves and thus showing love to God. Life comes from God and thus we are to use it as God intends for us to use it. God is the source of all life and by loving each other we appreciate the value of that life we were given. God placed this love in each and every one of us when we were created. We should appreciate ALL life, not just human life.
I believe that God’s laws are universal laws and can be found in the core teachings of almost every philosophy and theology throughout time.
I do not believe in the philosophy of original sin and atonement. It goes against what I believe about God’s loving nature. I see the bible and most holy writings as the writings of men, as laden with mythology and superstition. There are grains of truth to be learned there, I won’t deny that.
Here is where I diverge from most Deists. I believe in the teachings of Yeshua (Jesus), the Pale One, Buddha and a great many others. I believe they were Holy Ones anointed by God – and humanity has a habit of killing messengers who try to teach us to be kind to one another. The messengers haven’t stopped coming to this day. I believe that what we have written down by our Great Ones is only a glimpse at what they may have taught; we will never truly know what they said but we can see the spirit of what they taught for it is in this spirit of wisdom that their teachings live on. I believe they were human beings anointed and chosen by God for a divine purpose.
I’ve made this blog long enough – for which I ask your pardon. I only hope it gives you a better glimpse into what I believe and the way I live. I would love to hear more about your beliefs in response.
Peace Be With You All –
Rev. Chap. Kerena Hyler DD OCC
12/20/12