I think it's a bit different for me, because my understanding is that MTD is applied to Christianity, whereas I was raised by basically atheistic parents in an atheistic community.
There was no "deism" in it. There was only scorn for the idea of God and religion, and there was also no moralism. There was no idea of doing good to others or even being kind on a superficial level -- in fact, in the 70s, it was considered totally fake to be kind, very inauthentic.
It was a secular humanist approach, the creed of which is "as long as you don't hurt anyone else you should do what you want" and of course, relativism.
In my Journey Home interview I go into this more. What I realized later is that hurting others is a concept hard to pin down! Often they will be hurt, but doing what you want trumps that and even erases their hurt in the mind of the practitioner!
And soon one is going into the occult and sexual license as well...
I wonder how many of those atheist folks sought proto-deities -- like what secular humanism often becomes -- in order to fulfill their yearnings for moralistic therapy.
Your personal journey was fascinating! You seemed to describe Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (forgive me if I missed you explicitly using the term) as one of the unsatisfying "faiths" you found others expressing: https://www.arizonachristian.edu/2021/04/27/counterfeit-christianity-moralistic-therapeutic-deism-most-popular-worldview-in-u-s-culture/
I think it's a bit different for me, because my understanding is that MTD is applied to Christianity, whereas I was raised by basically atheistic parents in an atheistic community.
There was no "deism" in it. There was only scorn for the idea of God and religion, and there was also no moralism. There was no idea of doing good to others or even being kind on a superficial level -- in fact, in the 70s, it was considered totally fake to be kind, very inauthentic.
It was a secular humanist approach, the creed of which is "as long as you don't hurt anyone else you should do what you want" and of course, relativism.
In my Journey Home interview I go into this more. What I realized later is that hurting others is a concept hard to pin down! Often they will be hurt, but doing what you want trumps that and even erases their hurt in the mind of the practitioner!
And soon one is going into the occult and sexual license as well...
I wonder how many of those atheist folks sought proto-deities -- like what secular humanism often becomes -- in order to fulfill their yearnings for moralistic therapy.