Currently, meeting another Deist by chance is not very likely. Most Deists that I know of have gone out of their way to meet each other. But as the idea of Deism grows, and it is growing, we are more likely to meet each other.

   Not too long ago, the Deist sites were pushing the "Meetup" web-site as a way to meet other Deists. But as they are now charging to start and maintain groups on their site, I can no longer recommend them. Also, they were not very effective. In the year and a half that I was on their list, there was only one other person who signed up in the Bakersfield area. They called themselves, "Spammerspammer" or something like that. 

   The Deist Alliance is looking into other ways for Deists to meet locally, but right now the best they have is the Positive Deism Pushpin Map.  You can also check the membership lists at thePositive Deism forum.  People can list where they are from in their personal profiles and many do. Then by using the "Private Message" option on the forum, you can suggest a meeting.

   There is one way that I have not tried yet, but have thought about so doing for a while. And that is to put an ad in the local paper. When I do get around to doing it, I will let you know how it went. But there are a couple things that I have thought of while thinking about doing this. One is that I do not intend to put my phone number in the ad. I will use my e-mail address for this. You might even consider starting a separate e-mail account somewhere just for this. The thought I had was a personal ad. But I decided that it would be too likely to attract the wrong type of people. Many of those that look in the personal ads are looking for others to have a relationship with other than religious or philosophical. In my local paper, they have a religious section on Saturdays. That is where I am going to try to get my ad placed, when I get around to it. 

   I hope in the future we will have better ways to find each other, but in the mean time, I think I ought to list a couple of precautions about meeting strangers. First if you are going to meet any stranger, do so in a public place. If at all possible arrange the meeting during daylight hours. Coffee shops are good, as are many restaurants. Off peak hours are probably best. Try to get someone to go with you. Your wife might not like the idea of you meeting a strange woman alone. Even if they are not Deists themselves, they will provide some measure of protection. I should qualify this by saying that in the vast majority of cases, these precautions will not be needed, but better safe than sorry. 

   Now that you have arranged a meeting, what should you do? My suggestion is the initial meeting should be just a get to know each other meeting. Take a pen and something to write on, so that you can exchange information. One of the first topics of discussion would probably be how you and they found out about Deism. Another topic for discussion would be favorite Deist web-sites and forums. I would also suggest keeping the first meeting short. You don't want to run out of things to talk about and by keeping it short, it makes more likely you will want more meetings. I'm thinking an hour or less.

   Make sure that in the first meeting that you take the time to arrange for another meeting to keep things going along. And suggest letting other Deists, or potential Deists, know about when and where the next meeting is going to take place. Also try to come up with a topic for the next meeting. That way you and any others can do homework and be ready to discuss a topic at length. Hopefully, from the second meeting on, things will kind of take care of themselves. With new people telling how they discovered they were Deists, or if they are just interested in learning more about it. Discussing a specific topic and then deciding on the next topic to be discussed next time. And of course, arranging for the time and place for the next meeting.

   If the group grows big enough, other options maybe considered at a later time. I'll try to discuss that on another page of this web-site in the future. 


Positive Deism forum
http://www.positivedeism.com/phpbb2/index.php

Positive Deism pushpin map
http://www.frappr.com/pd