Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Rantzien View Post
That's not exactly deism, is it? I'd rather call it a blend of theism and agnosticism. Agnostheism.
Theism and agnosticism are contradictory, since theism is the affirmation of a belief in a god, and agnosticism makes no such affirmation (making it a subset of atheism - a lack of theism). Deism is a subset of theism that has been considered a non-sectarian, non-organizational theism, so yeah, I would consider him lumped into that category.
I wouldn't be so quick to lump him into any category, actually. It's naturally hard to classify someone's views by such a broad statement; he stated his belief on two points only: the existence and nature of a deity. This is why I would call it a blend of theism and agnosticism—his belief is theistic in that he believes there is something (which I take as meaning a deity of sorts) and agnostic (in a broader sense than the strictly religious meaning) in that he is unsure of it's nature.

Wikipedia apparently has an article on Agnostic theism. I should think that is the term we are looking for:
An agnostic theist can also be classified as someone who believes in a god yet does not understand how God or deities work.
Deism, on the other hand, is somewhat narrower:
Quote Originally Posted by http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Deism
Critical elements of deist thought included:

  • Rejection of all religions based on books that claim to contain the revealed word of God.
  • Rejection of reports of miracles, prophecies and religious "mysteries".
  • Rejection of the Genesis account of creation and the doctrine of original sin, along with all similar beliefs.
  • Rejection of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religious beliefs.


Constructive elements of deist thought included:

  • God exists and created the universe.
  • God wants human beings to behave morally.
  • Human beings have souls that survive death; that is, there is an afterlife.