Rational Deism®

Learn

Learn More. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Rational Deism®

We recognize that a journey such as this requires some guidance and planning, and some additional explanation. Please see below for additional information.

  1. What is the foundation of belief for Rational Deism®? The foundation of belief is The Three Enlightened Tenets: The First Enlightened Tenet: Self-Revelation, The Second Enlightened Tenet: No Divine Knowledge, and Third Enlightened Tenet: Love.
  2. What is The First Enlightened Tenet? Self-Revelation. Please learn more here.
  3. What is The Second Enlightened Tenet? No assertion of divine knowledge. Please learn more here.
  4. What is The Third Enlightened Tenet? Love. Please learn more here.
  5. I am a theist. Can I be a Rational Deist? Yes. Rational Deism® accepts any core dogma, understanding that the essential principles of the Three Enlightened Tenets, particularly The Second Enlightened Tenet: No Divine Knowledge. “I am a Christian Rational Deist” would express the concept that the speaker is a Christian, modified only by refusal to assert a judgment onto a third party; that is, a Christian might accept “The Lord Jesus Christ” as personal savior for the speaker, and the speaker might assert that Christianity is the one and true religion for the speaker. That is, the speaker might assert perfect personal faith for the speaker. But, the Rational Deist would be tempered not to assert the external absolute (only the relative personal or absolute personal); that is, the Rational Deist would not assert that Jesus is or should be another person’s savior or that Christianity is the one true religion for everyone else. What a Rational Deist accepts as personal revelation for self is distinct for the Rational Deist from what is pushed onto another by an arrogant self-righteous presumption of divine knowledge. Please learn more here.
  6. I am agnostic. Can I be a Rational Deist? Yes. An agnostic can exist as such without violating The Three Enlightened Tenets. Please learn more here.
  7. I am an atheist. Can I be a Rational Deist? Yes. An atheist can exist as such without violating The Three Enlightened Tenets. Notwithstanding the implication of deistic principles by name, the Three Enlightened Tenets substantively permit atheistic belief because atheisms can be consistent with the Three Enlightened Tenets. That is, atheists can achieve personal self-revelation, atheists naturally do not assert divine knowledge, and atheists can love. Because a Rational Deist will not say that someone is wrong regarding the Ethereal, there is no basis for combativeness between the two opposite principles. Please learn more here.
  8. Do I need to pay money or donate to join Rational Deism®? No. You may donate if you choose and the donation will be used to further the lucidity and revelation of Rational Deism®, but no donation is required. The principles of Rational Deism® do not require any social necessity.
  9. I have seen a use of the term “Ethereal” on the website and materials. What is the meaning of that term within Rational Deism®? For the purpose of our communication, there needs to be a word (which technically could be any word as a defined term of art) universally to communicate the concept of divine, deities, gods, supreme beings, or simply by whatever causation we exist. Faith aside, a Rational Deist does not assert knowledge of the nature of divinity and therefore cannot judge it properly to define it. Human existence has a frame of reference, but that frame of reference does not exist beyond human existence. Please learn more here.
  10. Does Rational Deism® have a mandatory “sermon” or weekly obligation? Rational Deism® does not require “holy days of obligation” or other such contrivances of culture, in the manner of Jesus, who clearly elevated revelation over superficial rites and rituals, asserting that god wanted the substance of mercy, not the façade of sacrifices. However, Rational Deism® does recommend at least a weekly appreciation of self-revelation, which can be satisfied by the dogma of many faiths.
  11. Does Rational Deism® have a prayer? A prayer assumes a theism that would offend anyone except a theist. The First Enlightened Tenet: Self-Revelation perfects itself. It would not be viewed as inconsistent with any dogma or any social standard for a Rational Deist to acknowledge love and duty, such as, “To appreciate all that life has granted to us [to me]. That we [I] may find love where we [I] can, and where we [I] cannot find love, to see our [my] duty and to do it.”
  12. Is Rational Deism® like a cult? To suggest it is to be greatly misled, with a great misunderstanding of the Three Enlightened Tenets. Rational Deism® does not profess, endorse or require any framework of sub-culture social validation by the First Enlightened Tenet, suggesting individual self-revelation by the First Enlightened Tenet; therefore, Rational Deism® defies the concept by its core principles. Rational Deism® is an invitation, not a condemnation, by application of the Second Enlightened Tenet. The unity of Rational Deism® is in the personal, not in the group. Some might say that Rational Deism® provides the inverse paradox to ancient religion. Ancient religions profess unity that divides everyone, with the result of hate, war, death and destruction of humanity. Rational Deism® professes personal revelation that unites everyone, with the result of love, peace, acceptance, and life for humanity. The question properly directed is not whether Rational Deism® is a cult by its principles, but by principles held otherwise and in ancient constructs.
  13. Is there a bible? There is only the Three Enlightened Tenets, which is sufficient. Neither Socrates nor Jesus wrote anything, but hard and heavy religious dogma is created by others, for better or worse, such as it is.
  14. To whom does a Rational Deist pray? This is an ancient concept, such as your question is thought to suggest it. That is, prayer (as the term is commonly used) to shared “gods” or ancient deities or dogmas, survives by ancient incalcitrant indoctrination, often by culture from birth. Rational Deism® does not endorse or judge the concept of prayer, as such, but rather only the resultant personal revelation by application of the First Enlightened Tenet (which may occur through what is commonly understood to be by prayer). Ancient religions may endorse personal revelation, but fail in the Second Enlightened Tenet, because they tend to condemn personal revelation that does not conform to a set of shared external dogmatic principles. That is, two revelations are or must be purported expressly to be “shared” by the same gods and dogmas, and the success of which is conveyed socially to adduce growth of the social host that feeds that religion, and any material deviation from the approved dogma is condemned as “wrong.” That is, the personal revelation, such as it is in any non-conformity, is wrong. This is social ancient validation religion in the nature of Likes to a religion and god, where social statistics makes right, rather than personal revelation. Personal revelation does not need to defend, attack, explain, justify or excuse. It cannot be expressed or shared. It is as unique as each of us. The perfect state of I AM, being self-defined. Please learn more here.
  15. Which religions are wrong? To suggest any religion is inherently wrong (or the related god or gods) is to be greatly misled, with a great misunderstanding of the Three Enlightened Tenets. What is “wrong” as to such things presupposes knowledge of what is “right,” which contradicts The Second Enlightened Tenet. To the extent that any religion brings unity, peace and joy, it cannot be “wrong” as such as a personal or a social concept, as that term is commonly understood, since “the tree is known by its fruit,” said Jesus. A better framing of the question is how or why Rational Deism® is distinguished. Many religions profess personal revelation, provided the revelation conforms to the social adherence to the dogma, and, therefore they do not inherently contradict The First Enlightened Tenet. The The Second Enlightened Tenet tends to be the necessary qualification that separates a Rational Deist and a dogmatic theist. A dogmatic theist treats an opinion as fact, and then owning a fact, condemns as “wrong” any opinion that challenges or does not adhere to that self-assumed “fact.” A Rational Deist can be of any “religion” and differs only in the lucid self-awareness that opinions (faiths) are not facts, and thereby cannot condemn a different opinion (faith) as wrong. Therefore, The First Enlightened Tenet is perfected by the The Second Enlightened , with perfection of or by The Third Enlightened Tenet: Love.
  16. What is Personal Revelation? This is an important question and is addressed on a dedicated page. See What Is Personal Revelation?
  17. What is a Rational Deism® “Leader”? A Rational Deism® Leader is a Rational Deist who assists others to discover their personal revelation. Please learn more at What Is a Leader?
  18. My pastor (or priest, rabbi) told me [this or that about Rational Deism®]…. First, statistically, your pastor is an XY-male. And there is a reason. Stop, and think about that fact for a minute, carefully. Ancient dogma that refuses to go away. And this man (statistically speaking), who has been “ordained” in purported knowledge of divine things with self-professed purported “holy” metaphysical powers, will tell you that men must be or should be pastors, priests or rabbis, and, irrespectively, will also perform all sorts of other “holy” rites and rituals (like making water holy, or rendering blessings from the divine, or circumcising), self-proclaiming indoctrinating professions of some special “holy” metaphysical power. Ancient incalcitrant dogma that is not supported by rational social equitable goodness, but rather a delusive attachment to an ancient religion that is distinct from the faith it purports to reflect. Theistic faith in the Ethereal is distinct from religion. Faith is personal, religion is social. In 2025, millennia later, we are much smarter than the medievals. We can read and think for ourselves. We no longer require or accept social delusion as a form of social constraint, which is to think faith is a fact. We are now more intellectually and socially sophisticated: we don’t need to control people as a group by divine imprecations. Of course, this is not to say there are not good attributes in some religions, but that is not our question; therefore, second, there is a dedicated page to “My pastor told me…” to address specific issues. Please learn more here.
  19. Does Rational Deism® have social norms, such as “Thou shall…[do this or not do that]”? Rational Deism® does not have social directives, except as might be implied by the Three Enlightened Tenets, for good reason. Ancient religions were developed when the religion was entwined in social law; that is, religion was the law (principles of social constraint). More than 2,500 years later, human society has evolved into free-thinking and critical-thinking and, particularly in First World countries with “evolved” political systems, a tending separation of moral civility and religion (“separation of church and state“). Therefore, Rational Deism® leaves social norms to the civil society and the respective social governments; thusly, “a human being might give to the Ethereal the personal human spirit and might give to the government what is socially temporal,” as Jesus might say (“give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s”). Rational Deism® lets political social systems take care of social standards, and keeps personal revelation to the unique individual. Therefore, Rational Deism® is civilly morally relativistic because it does not purport to have absolute knowledge of civil or Ethereal “right and wrong.” Instead, Rational Deism® focuses not on civil acceptance, but only upon personal revelation that cannot be socialized. The First Enlightened Tenet keeps the standards of Ethereal revelation as personal, the Second Enlightened Tenet keeps faith properly scoped and limited to opinion, and the Third Enlightened Tenet perfects the enlightened triad with love.
  20. Can Rational Deism® be sourced to any religion or philosophy? Rational Deism® is “new” because it subsumes and encapsulates, without insecure fear, what we humans have thought about—and how humans have evolved—for at least 2,500 years. It references the personal enlightenment suggested by “Paragons” of wisdom and spirituality: the human spirituality of The Buddha, the critical thoughtfulness and wisdom of Socrates, and the social unity, by love, of Jesus, Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln.
  21. What Is the First Cause? A Rational Deist considers the question of first causation (Big Bang, god, the gods, etc.) to be temporally and empirically foolish if the question seeks a factual answer within the framework that it is asked. The question serves itself philosophically as an academic question to strengthen the human intellect in a manner of a treadmill only; to wit, like exercising on a treadmill, the question will exercise the body, but without achieving any destination. Contemplating the Ethereal is good, but thinking that a human being can answer a question factually, socially, without any social frame of reference is folly. The goodness is in the exercise (opinion), not in achieving a new destination (fact). There are questions that are important to contemplate, but that question is one which is impossible rationally to answer as a matter of existential fact. Read More.
  22. How Does Rational Deism® Suggest the “Meaning of Life”? Please understand your question in the real-world context of socializing “god” and “religion,” which will clarify the essence of Rational Deism®. If you ask someone, “Is the meaning of life social or personal; that is, is the meaning of life something that must have social commonality, or is it reserved and unique to every person?” Since each person would tend to be free to decide the meaning of life for self, each person tends to say that the meaning of life is properly reserved to each person to decide; otherwise, slavery in human contemplation. But, now enter “gods” and “religions” which ultimately tend to contradict that very suggestion, because ancient religions exactly tend to socialize the meaning of life through common principles of revelation (“there is only one true god and religion and dogma for everyone”). A theist cannot separate the meaning of life from the theism, because the theism constrains that principle at issue. Therefore, a human being becomes subconsciously frustrated and does not know why; the contradictive hypocrisy does not reconcile, and then socializing the hypocritical meaning of life by the theism, creates, by “otherworldly” (Ethereal) comparatives and dogmatics, hate, war, death and destruction. Rational Deism® does not assert a social constraint on or by a core belief system. To each person, each person’s own. Rational Deism® only constrains each person’s belief to the person, effectively perfecting individual determinations regarding the “meaning of life,” causation, revelation and all other forms of existential meaning. A Rational Deist may receive the external condemnation from each religion, no less than any other person who is condemned from every other religion (dogma), but the difference is that the Rational Deist does not argue about it, because the Rational Deist defeats the argument by denying the premise asserted for the argument. See “My Pastor Told Me,” above and The Rational State of “Why”? for more information.