What is the difference between a deist and an atheist?

Answer 1

The belief in a supreme being

Answer 2

A deist acknowledges a supreme being, but does not necessarily believe Jesus was a divinity.

An atheist has no spiritual beliefs.

Answer 3

"Jester" has it just about right.

And I'm all excited about the "answers" the "Lion of Judah" says are forthcoming. We've been waiting for several thousand years and have yet to see an iota of evidence, or a coherent logical argument, for the existence of deities. Don't keep us waiting Mr. Lion! And I should mention that if you do have "answers," you may be violating various theological tenets associated with "free will" - but you will definitely be in line for some big award .. maybe even the Nobel!

Answer 4

Deist -- One who believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason.

Atheist -- One who does not believe, denies, or rejects any aspect of the supernatural, using logic and reason to determine reality. Many are often realists.

Answer 5

A deist tends to believe that a deity existed, started everything and moved away.

An atheist has no need to a deity at all.

Answer 6

theism, or deism as you put it, is the belief in a separate, transcendental, unified god. so, if i believed that there was a god, who was not a man but had greater power than man and was separate, i would be a theist. theism is not, as is commonly misrepresented, necessarily christianity. there can be conceptions of christianity that are not theist in nature. and, of course, christianity does not have a monopoly on theism, although they can go together quite well.

atheism, purely linguistically, is the exact opposite of theism. note that if we were to be pedantic about it, you can believe in gods and still be an atheist, as long as you're not a theist. but, most atheists are against gods in general, and religion in general, like myself for example. but, just be careful that some words are not misused and taken to mean something that, strictly speaking, they do not.

Answer 7

Atheist positions seem to fall into two main categories. The first is the lack-of-evidence category where the atheist asserts that the supporting evidence isn't good enough for him to affirm God's existence. The second is the category where they believe that the idea of God's existence is illogical and contrary to the evidence at hand. To simplify, one says there isn't enough evidence to conclude that God exists and the other says the evidence is contrary to God's existence. For those atheists who simply lack belief and exercise no energy in the discussion, neither category applies because they are not involved in the debate. But, some of those who claim to lack belief in God are often involved in discussions where they are arguing against God's existence.

A typical argument posed by an atheist to show why God does not exist is as follows: God is supposed to be all good and all powerful. Evil and suffering exist in the world. If God is all good he would not want evil and suffering to exist. If He is all powerful then He is able to remove all evil and suffering. Since evil and suffering exist, God is either not all good (which means he is not perfect and not God), or he is not all powerful (and limited in abilities and scope). Since either case shows God is not all good and powerful, then He does not exist. Of course, the problem is that the criticism is a false dichotomy. In other words, there are more than two possibilities; namely, God might have a reason for allowing evil and suffering; man's freedom might require the allowance of evil and suffering, etc.



Some Basic Tenets of Atheism
Presuppositions are important to us all. We look at the world through them. The atheist has a set of presuppositions, too. As I said, there is no definitive atheist organization that defines the absolutes of atheism, but that doesn't mean there aren't some common, there are basic principles that atheists, as a whole, tend to adopt. I've tried to list some of them below.

Pease note, however, that not all atheists accept all of these tenets. The only absolute common one they hold to is that they do not believe in a God or gods.

There is no God or devil.
There is no supernatural realm.
Miracles cannot occur.
There is no such thing as sin as a violation of God's will.
Generally, the universe is materialistic and measurable.
Man is material.
Generally, evolution is considered a scientific fact.
Ethics and morals are relative

For the Christian, atheism clashes with many aspects of our faith. Some atheists openly attack Christianity citing apparent contradictions in the Bible, perceived philosophical difficulties related to God, and what they consider as logical evidences against God's existence. But the atheists' criticisms are not without very good answers, as you will see in the coming papers.

Answer 8

One believes in some form of higher power and the other doesn't.

Answer 9

Hope.

Answer 10

ath & d