Since both theism and deism conceive of God as having an existence independent of the material universe—either in a timeless eternal realm or in another realm of time independent of the time in our universe—both can account for (a) the origin of the universe in time (i.e., at a beginning) and (b) the fine tuning of the universe from the beginning of time. In other words, since both theism and deism posit the prior (either ontological or temporal) existence of a transcendent intelligent agent, the creative and causal act of such an agent in choosing to design the universe with a specific suite
...more
