As far as I'm aware, someone who is a theist is someone who explicitly professes belief in God or a series of Gods, defined as a single all-powerful creator being or a group of all-powerful creator beings.

It is possible to be a theist without being Christian or believing in the bible, but if that is the case it seems to be a rather illogical position, since without religious script behind you, you have about the same amount of evidence for an all-powerful creator being (or group of creator beings) as you have for an invisible pink unicorn.

Now, if you defined theism as believing in aliens or the possibility of beings that live on different planes of existence that may be superior to us, then I can see and agree with that - I would find it exceedingly difficult to believe that earth was the only planet in a place the size of our universe to have developed sapient life, and that sapient life was limited only to things our sensory system can comprehend. I would also consider it very unlikely that we are the most advanced civilization in the universe. In that case, any civilization more developed than us would almost certainly be considered "superior" beings.

Since there is nothing remotely related to religion or creator beings or anything remotely like an established religion, I would not define someone who believes in them as a "theist" at all.

I don't think that's a theistic statement of any kind - if there was a secret colony of humans on alpha centauri that had far more advanced technology and civilization than anyone on earth, I would not consider them gods of any sort, either, though I would consider them "superior beings" and "higher powers". Thus, accepting their existence, though they may be higher powers, would not necessarily make me a theist. Similarly, although warlords in the Democratic Republic of Congo might accept the United States as being a "higher power" I don't think any of them would be considered theists for doing so.

We can do things now that 2,000 years ago were completely impossible and unimaginable - fly across oceans, construct enormous buildings, instantaneously converse with people on the other side of the world. We are certainly higher powers than our ancestors, but we are certainly not gods.



Edited 11 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2014 05:50PM by vortexmagus.