there are the people who believe strongly that there is a higher power AND religion... but then the people who don't believe the same decide to write off both religion and a higher power when it doesn't have to be that way at all.
in walks Deism... to some, like thomas paine, deism is still considered a religion... its actually the belief in a higher power and no belief in organized religion...
instead of me going on and on about what this theology is, i'll just refer u to wikipedia... there's really good info there. Here's a portion of it:
"Deism is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without a need for either faith or organized religion. Deists tend to, but do not necessarily, reject the notion of divine interventions in human affairs, such as by miracles and revelations. These views contrast with a dependence on revelations, miracles, and faith found in many Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other theistic teachings.
Deists typically reject most supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan for the universe that is not altered either by God intervening in the affairs of human life or by suspending the natural laws of the universe. What organized religions see as divine revelation and holy books, most deists see as interpretations made by other humans, rather than as authoritative sources.
Deism became prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment, especially in what is now the United Kingdom, France, United States and Ireland, mostly among those raised as Christians who found they could not believe in either a triune God, the divinity of Jesus, miracles, or the inerrancy of scriptures, but who did believe in one god."
the book Age of Reason by one of our founding fathers, thomas paine, is also a really great reference... he was the one to put a spotlight on deism in america back in the 1800s so i believe he has good incite into this religion... here's one of his quotes:
"the only religion that has not been invented... and that has in it every evidence of divine originality, is pure and simple deism. it must have been the first and will probably be the last that man believes..."
he says of christianity:
it's too "absurd for belief, too impossible to convince and too inconsistent to practice..."
