moral justification
as a struggling Christian, I have stumbled upon deism as a better means to explain my belief in God. However, if deists believe that God created the earth and has then taken a "hands-off" approach, on what basis do deists explain justice, mercy, and love of others? Always being taught that this was a response to God's love, if we don't have God's command to care for creation and neighbor, what, if any, motivation or justification is there to care for others, to not be entirely selfish? I questioned in another post the claim that "human nature is naturally moral". By observing human nature, I can't believe that,
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Deism is free of dogma, so not all Deists believe God is "hands-off", though some Deists do believe that and some Deists are not sure.
Deists practice justice, mercy and love of others out of wanting to do what is right. We all have an innate conscience and innate reason. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said, "When I do good, I feel good and when I do bad, I feel bad." Contrast this with Christianity or other "revealed" religion which teaches that if you do good, God will reward you. Thomas Paine summed it up well when he wrote in The Age of Reason, "I detest everything that is cruel."
Objectively looking at Christianity, the Christian God is not very merciful. There is no mercy in burning people in Hell for not believing irrational Christian claims. The anonymous author of the Gospel of Luke wrote at Luke 12:5 that Jesus warned people to fear God because God can both kill you and burn you in Hell. That belief is an insult to The Supreme Intelligence/God. Thankfully, God gave us our innate reason and not any of the various "revealed" religions.