Atheist/Deist Debates

[Rational Agnostic]

Anyone have any links to videos/audios/text of debates between an atheist and deist? I have no interest in the atheist/religious theist debate. However, a debate between an atheist and deist would be interesting. I cannot seem to find many on the Internet, though.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

Anyone have any links to videos/audios/text of debates between an atheist and deist? I have no interest in the atheist/religious theist debate. However, a debate between an atheist and deist would be interesting. I cannot seem to find many on the Internet, though.

Not just any one of the branches of theistic/deist belief, like Atheist vs Christian. Atheist vs Jew. Atheist vs Rastafarian.
You want straight up Deism. Atheist vs Deist. Right?

 

[Terry Sampson]

Anyone have any links to videos/audios/text of debates between an atheist and deist? I have no interest in the atheist/religious theist debate. However, a debate between an atheist and deist would be interesting. I cannot seem to find many on the Internet, though.

(a) Initially, I was amused by the thought of a debate between an atheist and a deist, given my understanding of what a deist believes: i.e. Deism: "The belief that God has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws. Deism thus rejects the supernatural aspects of religion, such as belief in revelation in the Bible (see also Bible), and stresses the importance of ethical conduct."

After all, a God who created the universe but steps aside and lets that universe do its thing unless and until it can't do it anymore, surely would not be interested in a debate over his existence by two people who have opposing opinions regarding his existence. And if God's not interested, why would a deist be interested, unless he or she has absolutely nothing better to do with their time?

(b) That said, the OP piqued my curiosity so I performed a Youtube search for "atheist deist debate" and came up with:

Although I did NOT watch any portion of any of those videos and, therefore, cannot vouch for the accurate use of the term "deist" in any of the titles, it would seem to me that my initial surprise over the OP's title was unfounded. Gee, who'd a thunk it?

 

[Rational Agnostic]

(a) Initially, I was amused by the thought of a debate between an atheist and a deist, given my understanding of what a deist believes: i.e. Deism: "The belief that God has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws. Deism thus rejects the supernatural aspects of religion, such as belief in revelation in the Bible (see also Bible), and stresses the importance of ethical conduct."

After all, a God who created the universe but steps aside and lets that universe do its thing unless and until it can't do it anymore, surely would not be interested in a debate over his existence by two people who have opposing opinions regarding his existence. And if God's not interested, why would a deist be interested, unless he or she has absolutely nothing better to do with their time?

I would have to disagree with your initial conclusion of their being no point of debating the existence of a deistic god. A deistic universe could be said to have purpose, because even if no god will ever be involved again, the universe was set up for a purpose, much like a program written by a programmer for a specific purpose, even if the program will never be modified again, while an atheistic universe most likely would not have purpose. Thus, atheism would be much more likely to lead to nihilism.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

I would have to disagree with your initial conclusion of their being no point of debating the existence of a deistic god. A deistic universe could be said to have purpose, because even if no god will ever be involved again, the universe was set up for a purpose, much like a program written by a programmer for a specific purpose, even if the program will never be modified again, while an atheistic universe most likely would not have purpose. Thus, atheism would be much more likely to lead to nihilism.

I’ve never agreed with the idea that atheism leads to nihilism. All atheists that I have encountered tend to look on it more as the universe has no other keeper then we sentient beings, and therefore we must look after our children and the world that we are providing them, very carefully.
There are no take-backs, resets, or father figures with magical powers who will fix any screw-ups that we commit. If we mess up, our children, and great great great great great great great great grandchildren, will suffer from our arrogance and short-sightedness.
In a way, atheism inspires its believers to work harder and act with greater wisdom than the deist or other believers, who think that they are operating with a giant safety net.

Also, who is to say what the Deist God/Programmer had in mind when it set the universe in motion. Perhaps we are his toy gyroscope, spinning on a wire over a pit of lava, and he just wants to know how long it’ll spin till it falls in.
He’s got other programs that are more important, running elsewhere.

 

[Rational Agnostic]

I’ve never agreed with the idea that atheism leads to nihilism. All atheists that I have encountered tend to look on it more as the universe has no other keeper then we sentient beings, and therefore we must look after our children and the world that we are providing them, very carefully.
There are no take-backs, resets, or father figures with magical powers who will fix any screw-ups that we commit. If we mess up, our children, and great great great great great great great great grandchildren, will suffer from our arrogance and short-sightedness.
In a way, atheism inspires its believers to work harder and act with greater wisdom than the deist or other believers, who think that they are operating with a giant safety net.

You are conflating deism with theism. A deist does not believe a father figure will fix our screwups either.

 

[Nimos]

Anyone have any links to videos/audios/text of debates between an atheist and deist? I have no interest in the atheist/religious theist debate. However, a debate between an atheist and deist would be interesting. I cannot seem to find many on the Internet, though.

I think the reason you can't really find any is because it would be fairly uninteresting. The debate is basically just the believer saying that they are a deist and the atheist answer: "fair enough, what's next?"

What argument or objection should the atheist have, there are no evidence to be checked and if the God doesn't interfere in our lives, it doesn't matter anyway.

 

[joe1776]

Such a debate is likely to be a long, drawn-out affair. I'll give you an idea of the topics involved.

It think it possible that a Creator exists because Life seems to be set up to teach us to make moral progress. We do that by learning to overcome the bad side of our nature. If I'm right about that, there would be evidence that we humans are indeed making moral progress.

If such a Creator exists, we would have a simple, universal (cross-cultural) way to discern right from wrong. I think 'conscience' might very well be just that.

If I'm right, there would be no need for a Creator to get involved with its creation. It could step away and watch it run.

Even though most people think that human morality is declining, I can argue persuasively to unbiased minds that this is a measurement problem and the evidence is deceptive. We humans, as a species, are indeed making moral progress.

Arguing that conscience is universal is far more difficult because there is no topic more misunderstood than morality. There's science to support me but only partially.

Finally, it's possible that the effects I see are not the work of a Creator since they are well-aligned with the survival of our species. So, what I'm seeing might not be the"purpose of life" determined by a Creator but evidence that evolution has given us a positive moral direction.

So, as to the God versions created by traditional religion, I'm an atheist. But otherwise, I'm an agnostic-deist leaning toward belief.

 

[columbus]

You are conflating deism with theism. A deist does not believe a father figure will fix our screwups either.

Lots of people do that because deism is not a very well defined concept.

Some deists do accept a sentient, ineffable, being and call It God. I don't.

I simply refer to the reason that there is something, rather than nothing, as god. No will, no plans, no emotions, no anything that can be understood by our tiny human minds. Much less human authorities who god authorizes to speak for It.
To me, the distinction between a theist and a nontheist is that theists believe that they know something important about God.

Theists are marked by the willingness to make claims about God. Claims that aren't grounded in anything more substantial than their personal preferences. Nontheists don't do that.
Those of us humans who believe that they know about God are the theists. Those of us humans who recognize human limitations are nontheist.
Tom

 

[Twilight Hue]

To even entertain the idea of there is a remote possibility of God, you have to have some kind of supernatural evidence put forward to even begin with.

If you don't even have a plausibility established as it stands , then forget the idea of even a deistic notion being valid.

 

[Milton Platt]

Anyone have any links to videos/audios/text of debates between an atheist and deist? I have no interest in the atheist/religious theist debate. However, a debate between an atheist and deist would be interesting. I cannot seem to find many on the Internet, though.

There is a dearth of such material. I think the main reason is that deists do not attempt to inject their religion into science classrooms and government. When the proposed god does not affect other's lives, they can safely ignore it.