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For other uses, seeDeism (disambiguation).Not to be confused withTheism.

Deism
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Deism(/ˈdiːɪzəm/DEE-iz-əm [1][2]or/ˈdeɪ.ɪzəm/DAY-iz-əm;derived from theLatintermdeus,meaning "god")[3][4]is thephilosophicalposition andrationalistictheology[5]that generally rejectsrevelationas a source of divine knowledge and asserts thatempiricalreasonandobservationof thenatural worldare exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of aSupreme Beingas thecreator of the universe.[11]More simply stated, Deism is the belief in theexistence of God(often, but not necessarily, a God whodoes not intervene in the universe after creating it),[8][12]solely based on rational thought without any reliance on revealed religions or religious authority.[13]Deism emphasizes the concept ofnatural theology—that is, God's existence is revealed through nature.[14]

Since the 17th century and during theAge of Enlightenment,especially in 18th-centuryEngland, France,andNorth America,[15]variousWestern philosophersand theologians formulated acritical rejectionof the severalreligious textsbelonging to the manyorganized religions,and began to appeal only to truths that they felt could be established by reason as the exclusive source of divine knowledge.[17]Such philosophers and theologians were called "Deists", and the philosophical/theological position they advocated is called "Deism".[18]

Deism as a distinct philosophical and intellectual movement declined toward the end of the 18th century[5]but had a revival in the early 19th century.[19]Some of its tenets continued as part of other intellectual andspiritualmovements, likeUnitarianism,[4]and Deism continues to have advocates today,[3]including with modern variants such asChristian deismandpandeism.

Early developments

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Ancient history

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Main article:History of philosophy

Deistical thinking has existed sinceancient times;the roots of Deism can be traced back to thephilosophical traditionofAncient Greece.[20]The 3rd-century Christian theologian and philosopherClement of Alexandriaexplicitly mentioned persons who believed thatGodwas not involved in human affairs, and therefore led what he considered a licentious life.[21]However, Deism did not develop as a religio-philosophical movement until after theScientific Revolution,which began in the mid-16th century inearly modern Europe.[22]

Divinity schools in Islamic theology

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Main articles:AqidahandGod in Islam

In thehistory of Islam,one of the earliestsystematic schools of Islamic theologyto develop was theMuʿtazilain the mid-8th century CE.[23][24]Muʿtazilite theologians emphasized the use ofreasonandrational thought,positing that the injunctions ofGodare accessible through rational thought and inquiry, and affirmed thatthe Quran was created(makhlūq) rather than co-eternal with God, an affirmation that would develop into one of the most contentious questions in the history of Islamic theology.[23][24]

In the 9th–10th century CE, theAshʿarī schooldeveloped as a response to the Muʿtazila, founded by the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologianAbū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī.[25]Ashʿarītes still taught the use of reason in understanding the Quran, but denied the possibility to deduce moral truths by reasoning.[25]This position was opposed by theMāturīdī school;[26]according to its founder, the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologianAbū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī,human reason is supposed to acknowledge the existence of acreator deity(bāriʾ) solelybased on rational thoughtand independently from divine revelation.[26]He shared this conviction with his teacher and predecessorAbū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān(8th century CE), whereas al-Ashʿarī never held such a view.[26]

According to the Afghan-American philosopherSayed Hassan Hussaini,the early schools of Islamic theology and theological beliefs amongclassical Muslim philosophersare characterized by "a rich color of Deism with a slight disposition towardtheism".[27]

Origins ofDeism

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The termsdeismandtheismare both derived from words meaning "god":theLatintermdeusand theAncient Greektermtheós(θεός).[3]The worddéistefirst appeared in French in 1563 in a theological treatise written by theSwissCalvinist theologiannamedPierre Viret,[9]but Deism was generally unknown in theKingdom of Franceuntil the 1690s whenPierre Baylepublished his famousDictionnaire Historique et Critique,which contained an article on Viret.[28]

In English, the wordsdeistandtheistwere originally synonymous, but by the 17th century the terms started to diverge in meaning.[29]The termdeistwith its current meaning first appears in English inRobert Burton'sThe Anatomy of Melancholy(1621).

Herbert of Cherbury and early English Deism

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Lord Herbert of Cherbury,portrayed byIsaac Oliver(1560–1617)

The first major statement of Deism in English isLord Herbert of Cherbury's bookDe Veritate(1624).[30]Lord Herbert, like his contemporaryDescartes,searched for the foundations of knowledge. The first two-thirds of his bookDe Veritate(On Truth, as It Is Distinguished from Revelation, the Probable, the Possible, and the False) are devoted to an exposition of Herbert'stheory of knowledge.Herbert distinguished truths from experience and distinguished reasoning about experience from innate and revealed truths. Innate truths are imprinted on our minds, as evidenced by their universal acceptance. Herbert referred to universally accepted truths asnotitiae communes—Common Notions. Herbert believed there were five Common Notions that unify all religious beliefs.

  1. There is one Supreme God.
  2. God ought to be worshipped.
  3. Virtue and piety are the main parts of divine worship.
  4. We ought to be remorseful for our sins and repent.
  5. Divine goodness dispenses rewards and punishments, both in this life and after it.

Herbert himself had relatively few followers, and it was not until the 1680s that Herbert found a true successor inCharles Blount(1654 – 1693).[31]

The peak of Deism (1696–1801)

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See also:Deism in England and France in the 18th century

The appearance ofJohn Locke'sEssay Concerning Human Understanding(1690) marks an important turning-point and new phase in the history of English Deism. Lord Herbert'sepistemologywas based on the idea of "common notions" (orinnate ideas). Locke'sEssaywas an attack on the foundation of innate ideas. After Locke, deists could no longer appeal to innate ideas as Herbert had done. Instead, deists were forced to turn to arguments based on experience and nature. Under the influence of Newton, they turned to theargument from designas the principal argument for the existence of God.[32]

Peter GayidentifiesJohn Toland'sChristianity Not Mysterious(1696), and the "vehement response" it provoked, as the beginning of post-Lockian Deism. Among the notable figures, Gay describes Toland andMatthew Tindalas the best known; however, Gay considered them to be talented publicists rather than philosophers or scholars. He regards Conyers Middleton andAnthony Collinsas contributing more to the substance of debate, in contrast with fringe writers such asThomas ChubbandThomas Woolston.[33]

Other English Deists prominent during the period includeWilliam Wollaston,Charles Blount,Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke,[7]and, in the latter part,Peter Annet,Thomas Chubb,andThomas Morgan.Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesburywas also influential; though not presenting himself as a Deist, he shared many of the deists' key attitudes and is now usually regarded as a Deist.[34]

Especially noteworthy is Matthew Tindal'sChristianity as Old as the Creation(1730), which became, very soon after its publication, the focal center of the Deist controversy. Because almost every argument, quotation, and issue raised for decades can be found here, the work is often termed "the Deist's Bible".[35]Following Locke's successful attack on innate ideas, Tindal's "Bible" redefined the foundation of Deistepistemologyas knowledge based on experience or human reason. This effectively widened the gap between traditional Christians and what he called "Christian Deists", since this new foundation required that "revealed" truth be validated through human reason.

Enlightenment Deism

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Aspects of Deism in Enlightenment philosophy

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Enlightenment Deism consisted of two philosophical assertions: (1) reason, along with features of the natural world, is a valid source of religious knowledge, and (2) revelation is not a valid source of religious knowledge. Different Deist philosophers expanded on these two assertions to create whatLeslie Stephenlater termed the "constructive" and "critical" aspects of Deism.[36][37]"Constructive" assertions—assertions that deist writers felt were justified by appeals to reason and features of the natural world (or perhaps were intuitively obvious or common notions)—included:[38][39]

  • God exists and created the universe.
  • God gave humans the ability to reason.

"Critical" assertions—assertions that followed from the denial of revelation as a valid source of religious knowledge—were much more numerous, and included:

  • Rejection of all books (including the Quran and the Bible) that claimed to contain divine revelation.[40]
  • Rejection of the incomprehensible notion of the Trinity and other religious "mysteries".
  • Rejection of reports of miracles, prophecies, etc.

The origins of religion

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A central premise of Deism was that the religions of their day were corruptions of an original religion that was pure, natural, simple, and rational. Humanity lost this original religion when it was subsequently corrupted by priests who manipulated it for personal gain and for the class interests of the priesthood,[41]and encrusted it with superstitions and "mysteries" —irrational theological doctrines. Deists referred to this manipulation of religious doctrine as "priestcraft", a derogatory term.[42]For deists, this corruption of natural religion was designed to keep laypeople baffled by "mysteries" and dependent on the priesthood for information about the requirements for salvation. This gave the priesthood a great deal of power, which the Deists believed the priesthood worked to maintain and increase. Deists saw it as their mission to strip away "priestcraft" and "mysteries". Tindal, perhaps the most prominent deist writer, claimed that this was the proper, original role of the Christian Church.[43]

One implication of this premise was that current-day primitive societies, or societies that existed in the distant past, should have religious beliefs less infused with superstitions and closer to those of natural theology. This position became less and less plausible as thinkers such asDavid Humebegan studying thenatural history of religionand suggested that the origin of religion was not in reason but in emotions, such as the fear of the unknown.

Immortality of the soul

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Different Deists had different beliefs about the immortality of the soul, about the existence of Hell and damnation to punish the wicked, and the existence of Heaven to reward the virtuous. Anthony Collins,[44]Bolingbroke,Thomas Chubb,andPeter Annetwere materialists and either denied or doubted the immortality of the soul.[45]Benjamin Franklinbelieved in reincarnation or resurrection. Lord Herbert of Cherbury andWilliam Wollaston[46]held that souls exist, survive death, and in the afterlife are rewarded or punished by God for their behavior in life.Thomas Painebelieved in the "probability" of the immortality of the soul.[47]

Miracles and divine providence

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The most natural position for Deists was to reject all forms of supernaturalism, including the miracle stories in the Bible. The problem was that the rejection of miracles also seemed to entail the rejection ofdivine providence(that is, God taking a hand in human affairs), something that many Deists were inclined to accept.[48]Those who believed in a watch-maker God rejected the possibility of miracles and divine providence. They believed that God, after establishing natural laws and setting the cosmos in motion, stepped away. He did not need to keep tinkering with his creation, and the suggestion that he did was insulting.[49]Others, however, firmly believed in divine providence, and so, were reluctantly forced to accept at least the possibility of miracles. God was, after all, all-powerful and could do whatever he wanted including temporarily suspending his own natural laws.

Freedom and necessity

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Enlightenment philosophers under the influence ofNewtonian sciencetended to view the universe as a vast machine, created and set in motion by a creator being, that continues to operate according to natural law without any divine intervention. This view naturally led to what was then called "necessitarianism"[50](the modern term is "determinism"): the view that everything in the universe—including human behavior—is completely, causally determined by antecedent circumstances and natural law. (See, for example,La Mettrie'sL'Homme machine.) As a consequence, debates aboutfreedomversus "necessity" were a regular feature of Enlightenment religious and philosophical discussions. Reflecting the intellectual climate of the time, there were differences among Deists about freedom and determinism. Some, such asAnthony Collins,were actually necessitarians.[51]

David Hume

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David Hume

Views differ on whetherDavid Humewas a Deist, anatheist,or something else.[52]Like the Deists, Hume rejected revelation, and his famous essayOn Miraclesprovided a powerful argument against belief in miracles. On the other hand, he did not believe that an appeal to Reason could provide any justification for religion. In the essayNatural History of Religion(1757), he contended thatpolytheism,notmonotheism,was "the first and most ancient religion of mankind" and that thepsychological basis of religionis not reason, butfearof the unknown.[53]In Waring's words:

The clear reasonableness of natural religion disappeared before a semi-historical look at what can be known about uncivilized man— "a barbarous, necessitous animal," as Hume termed him. Natural religion, if by that term one means the actual religious beliefs and practices of uncivilized peoples, was seen to be a fabric of superstitions. Primitive man was no unspoiled philosopher, clearly seeing the truth of one God. And the history of religion was not, as the deists had implied, retrograde; the widespread phenomenon of superstition was caused less by priestly malice than by man's unreason as he confronted his experience.[54]

Deism in the United States

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Thomas Paine

TheThirteen ColoniesofNorth America– which became theUnited States of Americaafter theAmerican Revolutionin 1776 – were part of theBritish Empire,and Americans, as British subjects, were influenced by and participated in the intellectual life of theKingdom of Great Britain.English Deism was an important influence on the thinking ofThomas Jeffersonand the principles of religious freedom asserted in theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution.OtherFounding Fatherswho were influenced to various degrees by Deism wereEthan Allen,[55]Benjamin Franklin,Cornelius Harnett,Gouverneur Morris,Hugh Williamson,James Madison,and possiblyAlexander Hamilton.

In the United States, there is a great deal of controversy over whether the Founding Fathers were Christians, Deists, or something in between.[56][57]Particularly heated is the debate over the beliefs of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, andGeorge Washington.[58][59][60]

In hisAutobiography,Franklin wrote that as a young man "Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist."[61][62]Like some other Deists, Franklin believed that, "The Deity sometimes interferes by his particular Providence, and sets aside the Events which would otherwise have been produc'd in the Course of Nature, or by the Free Agency of Man,"[63]and at the Constitutional Convention stated that "the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men."[64]

Thomas Jeffersonis perhaps the Founding Father who most clearly exhibits Deistic tendencies, although he generally referred to himself as aUnitarianrather than a Deist. His excerpts of thecanonical gospels(now commonly known as theJefferson Bible) strip all supernatural and dogmatic references from thenarrative on Jesus' life.Like Franklin, Jefferson believed in God's continuing activity in human affairs.[65]

Thomas Paineis especially noteworthy both for his contributions to the cause of the American Revolution and for his writings in defense of Deism, alongside thecriticismofAbrahamic religions.[19][66][67][68]InThe Age of Reason(1793–1794) and other writings, he advocated Deism, promotedreasonandfreethought,and argued against institutionalized religions in general and theChristian doctrinein particular.[19][66][67][68]The Age of Reasonwas short, readable, and probably the only Deistic treatise that continues to be read and influential today.[69]

The last contributor to American Deism wasElihu Palmer(1764–1806), who wrote the "Bible of American Deism",Principles of Nature,in 1801. Palmer is noteworthy for attempting to bring some organization to Deism by founding the "Deistical Society of New York" and other Deistic societies from Maine to Georgia.[70]

Deism in France and continental Europe

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Voltaireat age 24, portrayed byNicolas de Largillière

France had its own tradition ofreligious skepticismand natural theology in the works ofMontaigne,Pierre Bayle,andMontesquieu.The most famous of the French Deists wasVoltaire,who was exposed to Newtonian science and English Deism during his two-year period of exile in England (1726–1728). When he returned to France, he brought both back with him, and exposed the French reading public (i.e., the aristocracy) to them, in a number of books.

French Deists also includedMaximilien RobespierreandRousseau.During theFrench Revolution(1789–1799), the DeisticCult of the Supreme Being—a direct expression of Robespierre's theological views—was established briefly (just under three months) as the new state religion of France,replacing the deposed Catholic Churchand the rival atheisticCult of Reason.

There were over five hundred French Revolutionaries who were deists. These deists do not fit the stereotype of deists because they believed in miracles and often prayed to God. In fact, over seventy of them thought that God miraculously helped the French Revolution win victories over their enemies. Furthermore, over a hundred French Revolutionary deists also wrote prayers and hymns to God. Citizen Devillere was one of the many French Revolutionary deists who believed God did miracles. Devillere said, "God, who conducts our destiny, deigned to concern himself with our dangers. He commanded the spirit of victory to direct the hand of the faithful French, and in a few hours the aristocrats received the attack which we prepared, the wicked ones were destroyed and liberty was avenged."[71]

Deism in Germany is not well documented. We know from correspondence with Voltaire thatFrederick the Greatwas a Deist.Immanuel Kant's identification with Deism is controversial.[72]

Decline of Enlightenment Deism

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Peter Gay describes Enlightenment Deism as entering slow decline as a recognizable movement in the 1730s.[73]A number of reasons have been suggested for this decline, including:[74]

  • The increasing influence ofnaturalismandmaterialism.
  • The writings ofDavid HumeandImmanuel Kantraising questions about the ability of reason to address metaphysical questions.
  • The violence of the French Revolution.
  • Christian revivalist movements, such asPietismandMethodism(which emphasized a personal relationship with God), along with the rise of anti-rationalist and counter-Enlightenment philosophies such as that ofJohann Georg Hamann.[74]

Although Deism has declined in popularity over time, scholars believe that these ideas still have a lingering influence onmodern society.[75]One of the major activities of the Deists,biblical criticism,evolved into its own highly technical discipline. Deist rejection of revealed religion evolved into, and contributed to, 19th-centuryliberal British theologyand the rise ofUnitarianism.[74]

Contemporary Deism

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Contemporary Deism attempts to integrate classical Deism with modern philosophy and the current state of scientific knowledge. This attempt has produced a wide variety of personal beliefs under the broad classification of belief of "deism."

There are a number of subcategories of modern Deism, includingmonodeism(the default, standard concept of deism),pandeism,panendeism, spiritual deism, process deism,Christian deism,polydeism,scientific deism, and humanistic deism.[76][77][78]Some deists see design in nature and purpose in the universe and in their lives. Others see God and the universe in a co-creative process. Some deists view God in classical terms as observing humanity but not directly intervening in our lives, while others see God as a subtle and persuasive spirit who created the world, and then stepped back to observe.

Recent philosophical discussions of Deism

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In the 1960s, theologianCharles Hartshornescrupulously examined and rejected both deism andpandeism(as well aspantheism) in favor of a conception of God whose characteristics included "absolute perfection in some respects, relative perfection in all others" or "AR," writing that this theory "is able consistently to embrace all that is positive in either deism or pandeism," concluding that "panentheisticdoctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations. "[79]

Charles Taylor,in his 2007 bookA Secular Age,showed the historical role of Deism, leading to what he calls an "exclusive humanism". This humanism invokes a moral order whoseonticcommitment is wholly intra-human with no reference to transcendence.[80]One of the special achievements of such deism-based humanism is that it discloses new,anthropocentricmoral sources by which human beings are motivated and empowered to accomplish acts of mutual benefit.[81]This is the province of a buffered, disengaged self, which is the locus of dignity, freedom, and discipline, and is endowed with a sense of human capability.[82]According to Taylor, by the early 19th century this Deism-mediated exclusive humanism developed as an alternative to Christian faith in apersonal Godand an order of miracles and mystery. Some critics of Deism have accused adherents of facilitating the rise ofnihilism.[83]

Deism in Nazi Germany

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[under discussion]

Main articles:Gottgläubig,Ideology of the Nazi Party,andReligion in Nazi Germany
Further information:Kirchenkampf,Reichskonkordat,andReligious aspects of Nazism
On positive German God-belief(1939)

InNazi Germany,Gottgläubig(literally: "believing in God" )[84][85]was a Nazi religious term for a form ofnon-denominationalismpractised by those German citizens who hadofficially left Christian churchesbut professed faith in some higher power ordivine creator.[84]Such people were calledGottgläubige( "believers in God" ), and the term for the overall movement wasGottgläubigkeit( "belief in God" ); the term denotes someone who still believes in a God, although without having anyinstitutional religiousaffiliation.[84]TheseNational Socialistswere not favourable towards religious institutions of their time, nor did they tolerateatheismof any type within their ranks.[85][86]The 1943Philosophical DictionarydefinedGottgläubigas: "official designation for those who profess a specific kind of piety and morality, without being bound to a church denomination, whilst however also rejectingirreligionandgodlessness."[87]TheGottgläubigkeitis considered a form of deism, and was "predominantly based on creationist and deistic views".[88]

In the 1920National Socialist Programmeof theNational Socialist German Workers' Party(NSDAP),Adolf Hitlerfirst mentioned the phrase "Positive Christianity".The Nazi Party did not wish to tie itself to a particularChristian denomination,but with Christianity in general, and soughtfreedom of religionfor all denominations "so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of theGermanic race"(point 24). When Hitler and the NSDAP got into power in 1933, they sought to assert state control over the churches, on the one hand through theReichskonkordatwith theRoman Catholic Church,and the forced merger of theGerman Evangelical Church Confederationinto theProtestant Reich Churchon the other. This policy seems to have gone relatively well until late 1936, when a "gradual worsening of relations" between the Nazi Party and the churches saw the rise ofKirchenaustritt( "leaving the Church" ).[84]Although there was no top-down official directive to revoke church membership, some Nazi Party members started doing so voluntarily and put other members under pressure to follow their example.[84]Those who left the churches were designated asGottgläubige( "believers in God" ), a term officially recognised by the Interior MinisterWilhelm Frickon 26 November 1936. He stressed that the term signified political disassociation from the churches, not an act ofreligious apostasy.[84]The term "dissident", which some church leavers had used up until then, was associated with being "without belief" (glaubenslos), whilst most of them emphasized that they still believed in a God, and thus required a different word.[84]

A census in May 1939, six years into theNazi era,[89]and after the annexation of the mostly CatholicFederal State of Austriaand mostly CatholicGerman-occupied Czechoslovakia[90]intoGerman-occupied Europe,indicates[91]that 54% of the population considered itself Protestant, 41% considered itself Catholic, 3.5% self-identified asGottgläubig,[92][93]and 1.5% as "atheist".[92]

Deism in Turkey

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Main article:Irreligion in Turkey
Further information:Secularism in Turkey
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,thefounding fatherof theRepublic of Turkey,serving as its firstpresidentfrom 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressivereforms,which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation.[94][95][96]

An early April 2018 report of theTurkish Ministry of Education,titledThe Youth is Sliding towards Deism,observed that an increasing number of pupils inİmam Hatip schoolswasrepudiating Islamin favour of Deism (irreligious belief in acreator God).[97][98][99][100][101][102][103]The report's publication generated large-scale controversy in theTurkish pressand society at large, as well as amongstconservativeIslamic sects,Muslim clerics,andIslamist partiesinTurkey.[97][98][99][100][101][102][103]

TheprogressiveMuslim theologianMustafa Öztürk noted the Deistic trend amongTurkish peoplea year earlier, arguing that the "very archaic, dogmatic notion of religion" held by the majority of those claiming to represent Islam was causing "the new generations [to become] indifferent, even distant, to the Islamic worldview." Despite a lack of reliable statistical data, numerous anecdotes and independent surveys appear to point in this direction.[97][98][99][100][101][102][103]Although some commentators claim that thesecularization of Turkeyis merely a result ofWestern influenceor even an alleged "conspiracy",other commentators, even some pro-government ones, have come to the conclusion that" the real reason for the loss of faith in Islam is not the West but Turkey itself ".[104]

Deism in the United States

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Main article:Irreligion in the United States

Though Deism subsided in the United States post-Enlightenment, it never died out entirely.Thomas Edison,for example, was heavily influenced byThomas Paine'sThe Age of Reason.[105]Edison defended Paine's "scientific deism", saying, "He has been called anatheist,but atheist he was not. Paine believed in a supreme intelligence, as representing the idea which other men often express by the name of deity. "[105]In 1878, Edison joined theTheosophical Societyin New Jersey,[106]but according to its founder,Helena Blavatsky,he was not a very active member.[107]In an October 2, 1910, interview in theNew York Times Magazine,Edison stated:

Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me—the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love—He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us—nature did it all—not the gods of the religions.[108]

Edison was labeled an atheist for those remarks, and although he did not allow himself to be drawn into the controversy publicly, he clarified himself in a private letter:

You have misunderstood the whole article, because you jumped to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I call Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the article states is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made.[105]

He also stated, "I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt."[109]

The 2001American Religious Identification Survey(ARIS) report estimated that between 1990 and 2001 the number of self-identifying Deists grew from 6,000 to 49,000, representing about 0.02% of theU.S. populationat the time.[110]The 2008 ARIS survey found, based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification, that 70% of Americans believe in apersonal God:[i]roughly 12% areatheistsoragnostics,and 12% believe in "a deist or paganistic concept of the Divine as a higher power" rather than a personal God.[111]

The term "ceremonial deism"was coined in 1962 and has been used since 1984 by theSupreme Court of the United Statesto assess exemptions from the Establishment Clause of theFirst Amendmentto theU.S. Constitution,thought to be expressions of cultural tradition and not earnest invocations of a deity. It has been noted that the term does not describe any school of thought within Deism itself.[112]

See also

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References

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Notes

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  1. ^TheAmerican Religious Identification Survey(ARIS) report notes that while "[n]o definition was offered of the terms, [they] are usually associated with a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ together with a certain view of salvation, scripture, and missionary work" (p. 11).

Citations

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  1. ^R. E. Allen, ed. (1990).The Concise Oxford Dictionary.Oxford University Press.
  2. ^"Deist – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary".Merriam-webster. 2012.Archivedfrom the original on 12 January 2012.Retrieved10 October2012.
  3. ^abcdefHarper, Leland Royce (2020)."Attributes of a Deistic God".Multiverse Deism: Shifting Perspectives of God and the World.Lanham, Maryland:Rowman & Littlefield.pp. 47–68.ISBN978-1-7936-1475-9.LCCN2020935396.
  4. ^abPeters, Ted (2013)."Models of God: Deism".In Diller, Jeanine; Kasher, Asa (eds.).Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities.DordrechtandHeidelberg:Springer Verlag.pp. 51–52.doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_5.ISBN978-94-007-5219-1.LCCN2012954282.
  5. ^abcdefgSmith, Merril D., ed. (2015)."Deism".The World of the American Revolution: A Daily Life Encyclopedia.Vol. 1.Santa Barbara, California:Greenwood Publishing Group,imprint ofABC-Clio.pp. 661–664.ISBN978-1-4408-3027-3.LCCN2015009496.
  6. ^abcdeBristow, William (Fall 2017)."Religion and the Enlightenment: Deism".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.The Metaphysics Research Lab,Center for the Study of Language and Information,Stanford University.ISSN1095-5054.OCLC643092515.Archivedfrom the original on 11 December 2017.Retrieved3 August2021.Deism is the form of religion most associated withthe Enlightenment.According to deism, we can know by the natural light of reason that the universe is created and governed by a supreme intelligence; however, although this supreme being has a plan for creation from the beginning, the being does not interfere with creation; the deist typically rejects miracles and reliance on special revelation as a source of religious doctrine and belief, in favor of the natural light of reason. Thus, a deist typically rejects the divinity of Christ, as repugnant to reason; the deist typically demotes the figure of Jesus from agent of miraculous redemption to extraordinary moral teacher. Deism is the form of religion fitted to the new discoveries in natural science, according to which the cosmos displays an intricate machine-like order; the deists suppose that the supposition of a God is necessary as the source or author of this order. Though not a deist himself,Isaac Newtonprovides fuel for deism with his argument in hisOpticks(1704) that we must infer from the order and beauty in the world to the existence of an intelligent supreme being as the cause of this order and beauty.Samuel Clarke,perhaps the most important proponent and popularizer of Newtonian philosophy in the early eighteenth century, supplies some of the more developed arguments for the position that the correct exercise of unaided human reason leads inevitably to the well-grounded belief in a God. He argues that the Newtonian physical system implies the existence of a transcendent cause, the creator a God. In his first set of Boyle lectures,A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God(1705), Clarke presents the metaphysical or "argument a priori" for God's existence. This argument concludes from the rationalist principle that whatever exists must have a sufficient reason or cause of its existence to the existence of a transcendent, necessary being who stands as the cause of the chain of natural causes and effects.
  7. ^abcdefManuel, Frank Edward; Pailin, David A.; Mapson, K.; Stefon, Matt (13 March 2020) [26 July 1999]."Deism".Encyclopædia Britannica.Edinburgh:Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Archivedfrom the original on 9 June 2021.Retrieved3 August2021.Deism, an unorthodox religious attitude that found expression among a group of English writers beginning withEdward Herbert (later 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury)in the first half of the 17th century and ending withHenry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke,in the middle of the 18th century. These writers subsequently inspired a similar religious attitude in Europe during the second half of the 18th century and in the colonial United States of America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In general, Deism refers to what can be callednatural religion,the acceptance of a certain body of religious knowledge that is inborn in every person or that can be acquired by the use of reason and the rejection of religious knowledge when it is acquired through either revelation or the teaching of any church.
  8. ^abcGomes, Alan W. (2012) [2011]. "Deism".The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization.Chichester, West Sussex:Wiley-Blackwell.doi:10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc0408.ISBN9781405157629.Deism is a rationalistic, critical approach to theism with an emphasis onnatural theology.The deists attempted to reduce religion to what they regarded as its most foundational, rationally justifiable elements. Deism is not, strictly speaking, the teaching thatGod wound up the world like a watch and let it run on its own,though that teaching was embraced by some within the movement.
  9. ^abcdePitassi, Maria-Cristina (22 August 2005)."Déisme".Historical Dictionary of Switzerland(in French).Geneva:Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences.Archivedfrom the original on 29 March 2023.Retrieved30 May2023.Si le terme de déisme se trouve déjà chezPierre Vireten 1563, ce n'est qu'aux XVIIe et XVIIIe s. que le mouvement connut son véritable essor. Il fut actif surtout en Angleterre oùHerbert of Cherburyd'abord,Matthew Tindal,John Toland,etAnthony Collinsensuite lui donnèrent ses bases intellectuelles. [...] Malgré des sensibilités assez différentes à l'intérieur du mouvement, le déisme se caractérise par une attaque virulente de la révélation biblique et des institutions ecclésiastiques au nom d'une religion naturelle que l'être humain peut découvrir en utilisant exclusivement sa raison. [...] Assimilés par les apologistes chrétiens à des athées, les déistes ne niaient pas l'existence de Dieu mais dénonçaient sans indulgence les prétendues incohérences, voire les immoralités de l'Ecriture; celle-ci, considérée dans le meilleur des cas comme un amas de contradictions et dans le pire comme une supercherie habilement exploitée par les autorités ecclésiastiques, était ainsi dépouillée de tout caractère sacré. Pourtant, en dépit de son côté radical et polémique, la réflexion déiste sur l'Ancien et le Nouveau Testament a contribué au développement du criticisme biblique, en particulier en ce qui concerne l'élucidation des origines juives et chrétiennes, l'histoire du canon ou l'interprétation des prophéties.
  10. ^abcdKohler, Kaufmann;Hirsch, Emil G.(1906)."Deism".Jewish Encyclopedia.Kopelman Foundation.Archivedfrom the original on 15 January 2013.Retrieved3 August2021.A system of belief which posits a God's existence as the cause of all things, and admits His perfection, but rejects Divine revelation and government, proclaiming the all-sufficiency of natural laws. TheSocinians,asopposed to the doctrine of the Trinity,were designated as deists [...]. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries deism became synonymous with "natural religion," and deist with "freethinker."England and Francehave been successively the strongholds of deism. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the "father of deism" in England, assumes certain "innate ideas," which establish five religious truths: (1) that God is; (2) that it is man's duty to worship Him; (3) that worship consists in virtue and piety; (4) that man must repent of sin and abandon his evil ways; (5) that divine retribution either in this or in the next life is certain. He holds that all positive religions are either allegorical and poetic interpretations of nature or deliberately organized impositions of priests.
  11. ^[3][5][6][7][8][9][10]
  12. ^Doniger, Wendy;Eliade, Mircea,eds. (1999)."DEUS OTIOSUS".Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions.Springfield, Massachusetts:Merriam-Webster.p. 288.ISBN9780877790440.OCLC1150050382.Archivedfrom the original on 13 March 2023.Retrieved15 March2023.DEUS OTIOSUS(Latin:"inactive god" ) in the history of religions and philosophy, aHigh Godwho has withdrawn from the immediate details of the government of the world. [...] InWestern philosophy,thedeus otiosusconcept has been attributed to Deism, a 17th–18th century Western rationalistic religio-philosophical movement, in its view of a non-interveningcreator of the universe.Although this stark interpretation was accepted by very few Deists, many of their antagonists attempted to force them into the position of stating that after the original act of creationGodvirtually withdrew and refrained from interfering in the processes of nature and human affairs.
  13. ^[3][5][6][7][9][10]
  14. ^[3][5][6][7][8][9]
  15. ^Rowe, William L. (2022) [2017]. "Deism". InCraig, Edward(ed.).Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.LondonandNew York:Routledge.doi:10.4324/9780415249126-K013-1.ISBN9780415250696.In the popular sense, a deist is someone who believes that God created the world but thereafter has exercised no providential control over what goes on in it. In the proper sense, a deist is someone who affirms a divine creator but denies any divine revelation, holding that human reason alone can give us everything we need to know to live a correct moral and religious life. In this sense of 'deism' some deists held that God exercises providential control over the world and provides for a future state of rewards and punishments, while other deists denied this. However, they all agreed that human reason alone was the basis on which religious questions had to be settled, rejecting the orthodox claim to a special divine revelation of truths that go beyond human reason. Deism flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, principally in England, France, and America.
  16. ^abHerrick, James A. (1997)."Characteristics of British Deism".The Radical Rhetoric of the English Deists: The Discourse of Skepticism, 1680–1750.Studies in Rhetoric/Communication.Columbia, South Carolina:University of South Carolina Press.pp. 23–49.ISBN978-1-57003-166-3.
  17. ^[5][6][7][9][10][16]
  18. ^[5][6][7][10][16]
  19. ^abcClaeys, Gregory (1989)."Revolution in heaven: The Age of Reason (1794-95)".Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought(1st ed.).New YorkandLondon:Routledge.pp. 177–195.ISBN9780044450900.
  20. ^Piland 2011,p. 4.
  21. ^Stromata,book 7, ch. 3. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.),Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to AD 325,vol. 12, p. 416
  22. ^Piland 2011,p. 5.
  23. ^ab•Treiger, Alexander (2016) [2014]."Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Origins of Kalām".InSchmidtke, Sabine(ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology.OxfordandNew York:Oxford University Press.pp. 27–43.doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.001.ISBN9780199696703.LCCN2016935488.Archivedfrom the original on 18 November 2022.Retrieved19 October2021.
    •Abrahamov, Binyamin (2016) [2014]."Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Scripturalist and Traditionalist Theology".InSchmidtke, Sabine(ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology.OxfordandNew York:Oxford University Press.pp. 264–279.doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.025.ISBN9780199696703.LCCN2016935488.Archivedfrom the original on 18 November 2022.Retrieved19 October2021.
  24. ^abPeters, J. R. T. M. (1980)."La théologie musulmane et l'étude du langage".Histoire. Épistémologie. Langage(in French).2(1:Éléments d'Histoire de la tradition linguistique arabe).Paris:Société d'histoire et d'Épistémologie des Sciences du Langage: 9–19.doi:10.3406/hel.1980.1049.ISSN1638-1580.Archivedfrom the original on 30 November 2021.Retrieved30 November2021.
  25. ^abThiele, Jan (2016) [2014]."Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Between Cordoba and Nīsābūr: The Emergence and Consolidation of Ashʿarism (Fourth–Fifth/Tenth–Eleventh Century)".InSchmidtke, Sabine(ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology.Oxford and New York:Oxford University Press.pp. 225–241.doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.45.ISBN978-0-19-969670-3.LCCN2016935488.
  26. ^abcRudolph, Ulrich (2016) [2014]."Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Ḥanafī Theological Tradition and Māturīdism".InSchmidtke, Sabine(ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology.OxfordandNew York:Oxford University Press.pp. 285–290.doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.023.ISBN9780199696703.LCCN2016935488.Archivedfrom the original on 1 January 2023.Retrieved2 June2023.
  27. ^Hussaini, Sayed Hassan(2016). "Islamic Philosophy between Theism and Deism".Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia.72(1:Teísmos: Aportações Filosóficas do Leste e Oeste / Theisms: Philosophical Contributions from the East to the West).Braga:Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural: 65–83.doi:10.17990/RPF/2016_72_1_0065.ISSN0870-5283.JSTOR43816275.
  28. ^ Bayle, Pierre(1820). "Viret".Dictionnaire historique et critique(in French). Vol. 14 (Nouvelle ed.). Paris: Desoer.Retrieved23 November2017.(1697/1820) Bayle quotes Viret (see below) as follows: “J'ai entendu qu'il y en a de ceste bande, qui s'appellent déistes, d'un mot tout nouveau, lequel ils veulent opposer à l'athéiste,” remarking on the term as a neologism (un mot tout nouveau). (p.418)
  29. ^Orr, John (1934).English Deism: Its Roots and Its Fruits.Eerdmans.The words deism and theism are both derived words meaning "god" - "THE": Latin ZEUS-deus / "deist" and Greek theos/ "theist" (θεός). The word deus/déiste first appears in French in 1564 in a work by a Swiss Calvinist named Pierre Viret, but was generally unknown in France until the 1690s when Pierre Bayle published his famous Dictionary, which contained an article on Viret. “Prior to the 17th Century the terms [" deism "and" deist "] were used interchangeably with the terms" theism "and" theist ", respectively... Theologians and philosophers of the 17th Century began to give a different signification to the words... Both [theists and deists] asserted belief in one supreme God, the Creator... But the theist taught that God remained actively interested in and operative in the world which he had made, whereas the Deist maintained that God endowed the world at creation with self-sustaining and self-acting powers and then surrendered it wholly to the operation of these powers acting as second causes.” (p.13)
  30. ^Basil Willey,The Seventeenth Century Background: Studies in the Thought of the Age in Relation to Poetry and Religion,1934, p.59ff.
  31. ^Gay.(see above)."By utilizing his wide classical learning, Blount demonstrated how to use pagan writers, and pagan ideas, against Christianity.... Other Deists were to follow his lead." (pp.47-48)
  32. ^Note that Locke himself was not a deist. He believed in both miracles and revelation. See Orr, pp.96-99.
  33. ^ Gay.(see above).“Among the Deists, only Anthony Collins (1676–1729) could claim much philosophical competence; only Conyers Middleton (1683–1750) was a really serious scholar. The best known Deists, notably John Toland (1670–1722) and Matthew Tindal (1656–1733), were talented publicists, clear without being deep, forceful but not subtle.... Others, like Thomas Chubb (1679–1747), were self-educated freethinkers; a few, like Thomas Woolston (1669–1731), were close to madness.” (pp.9-10)
  34. ^ Gay.(see above).Gay describes him (pp.78-79) as "a Deist in fact, if not in name".
  35. ^Waring.(see above).p.107.
  36. ^Stephen, Leslie(1881).History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century 3rd Edition 2 vols (reprinted 1949).London: Smith, Elder & Co.ISBN978-0844614212.Archivedfrom the original on 30 June 2015.Retrieved4 January2019.Stephen’s book, despite its “perhaps too ambitious” title (preface, Vol.I p.vii), was conceived as an “account of the deist controversy” (p.vi). Stephen notes the difficulty of interpreting the primary sources, as religious toleration was yet far from complete in law, and entirely not a settled fact in practice (Ch.II s.12): deist authors “were forced to.. cover [their opinions] with a veil of decent ambiguity.” He writes of Deist books being burned by the hangman, mentions the Aikenhead blasphemy case (1697)[1]Archived2019-01-06 at theWayback Machine,and names five deists who were banished, imprisoned etc.
  37. ^Gay (Fröhlich), Peter Joachim,ed. (1968).Deism: An Anthology.Princeton etc.: Van Nostrand.ISBN978-0686474012.
    • "All Deists were in fact both critical and constructive Deists. All sought to destroy in order to build, and reasoned either from the absurdity of Christianity to the need for a new philosophy or from their desire for a new philosophy to the absurdity of Christianity. Each deist, to be sure, had his special competence. While one specialized in abusing priests, another specialized in rhapsodies to nature, and a third specialized in the skeptical reading of sacred documents. Yet whatever strength the movement had—and it was at times formidable—it derived that strength from a peculiar combination of critical and constructive elements." (p.13)
  38. ^Tindal: "By natural religion, I understand the belief of the existence of a God, and the sense and practice of those duties which result from the knowledge we, by our reason, have of him and his perfections; and of ourselves, and our own imperfections, and of the relationship we stand in to him, and to our fellow-creatures; so that the religion of nature takes in everything that is founded on the reason and nature of things."Christianity as Old as the Creation(II), quoted in Waring(see above),p.113.
  39. ^Toland: “I hope to make it appear that the use of reason is not so dangerous in religion as it is commonly represented.. There is nothing that men make a greater noise about than the" mysteries of the Christian religion ". The divines gravely tell us" we must adore what we cannot comprehend ".. [Some] contend [that] some mysteries may be, or at least seem to be, contrary to reason, and yet received by faith. [Others contend] that no mystery is contrary to reason, but that all are" above "it. On the contrary, we hold that reason is the only foundation of all certitude.. Wherefore, we likewise maintain, according to the title of this discourse, thatthere is nothing in the Gospel contrary to reason, nor above it; and that no Christian doctrine can be properly called a mystery."Christianity Not Mysterious: or, a Treatise Shewing That There Is Nothing in the Gospel Contrary to Reason, Nor above It(1696), quoted in Waring(see above),pp. 1–12
  40. ^Stephens, William.An Account of the Growth of Deism in England.Archivedfrom the original on 5 January 2019.Retrieved4 January2019.(1696 / 1990). Introduction (James E. Force, 1990): "[W]hat sets the Deists apart from even their mostlatitudinarianChristian contemporaries is their desire to lay aside scriptural revelation as rationally incomprehensible, and thus useless, or even detrimental, to human society and to religion. While there may possibly be exceptions,.. most Deists, especially as the eighteenth century wears on, agree that revealed Scripture is nothing but a joke or "well-invented flam." About mid-century,John Leland,in his historical and analytical account of the movement [View of the Principal Deistical Writers[2]Archived2019-01-05 at theWayback Machine(1754–1755)], squarely states that the rejection of revealed Scripture isthecharacteristic element of deism, a view further codified by such authorities asEphraim ChambersandSamuel Johnson... "DEISM," writes Stephens bluntly, "is a denial of all reveal'd Religion."”
  41. ^Champion, J.A.I. (2014).The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken: The Church of England and its Enemies, 1660-1730.Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History).Champion maintains that historical argument was a central component of the Deists' defences of what they considered true religion.
  42. ^Paine, Thomas.The Age of Reason."As priestcraft was always the enemy of knowledge, because priestcraft supports itself by keeping people in delusion and ignorance, it was consistent with its policy to make the acquisition of knowledge a real sin." (Part 2, p.129)
  43. ^“It can't be imputed to any defect in the light of nature that the pagan world ran into idolatry, but to their being entirely governed by priests, who pretended communication with their gods, and to have thence their revelations, which they imposed on the credulous as divine oracles. Whereas the business of the Christian dispensation was to destroy all those traditional revelations, and restore, free from all idolatry, the true primitive and natural religion implanted in mankind from the creation.”Christianity as Old as the Creation(XIV), quoted in Waring(see above),p.163.
  44. ^ Orr.(see above).p.134.
  45. ^ Orr.(see above).p.78.
  46. ^ Orr.(see above).p.137.
  47. ^ Age of Reason,Pt I:

    I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

    and (in the Recapitulation)

    I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body; and it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist hereafter than that I should have had existence, as I now have, before that existence began.

  48. ^Most American Deists, for example, firmly believed in divine providence. See this article,Deism in the United States.
  49. ^See for instancePaine, Thomas.The Age of Reason.,Part 1.
  50. ^David Hartley, for example, described himself as "quite in the necessitarian scheme. See Ferg, Stephen," Two Early Works of David Hartley ",Journal of the History of Philosophy,vol. 19, no. 2 (April 1981), pp. 173–89.
  51. ^See for exampleLiberty and Necessity(1729).
  52. ^Hume himself was uncomfortable with both terms, and Hume scholarPaul Russellhas argued that the best and safest term for Hume's views isirreligion. Russell, Paul(2005)."Hume on Religion".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Retrieved17 December2009.
  53. ^Hume, David(1779).The Natural History of Religion.“The primary religion of mankind arises chiefly from an anxious fear of future events; and what ideas will naturally be entertained of invisible, unknown powers, while men lie under dismal apprehensions of any kind, may easily be conceived. Every image of vengeance, severity, cruelty, and malice must occur, and must augment the ghastliness and horror which oppresses the amazed religionist... And no idea of perverse wickedness can be framed, which those terrified devotees do not readily, without scruple, apply to their deity.” (Section XIII)
  54. ^Waring.(see above).
  55. ^"Excerpts from Allen'sReason The Only Oracle Of Man".Ethan Allen Homestead Museum. Archived fromthe originalon 2 May 2008.Retrieved1 May2008.
  56. ^"The Deist Minimum".First Things.2005.Archivedfrom the original on 1 September 2006.Retrieved14 September2006.
  57. ^ Holmes, David(2006).The Faiths of the Founding Fathers.New York, NY: Oxford University Press, USA.ISBN0-19-530092-0.
  58. ^David Liss (11 June 2006)."The Founding Fathers Solving modern problems, building wealth and finding God".Washington Post.Archivedfrom the original on 12 May 2017.Retrieved20 September2017.
  59. ^Gene Garman (2001)."Was Thomas Jefferson a Deist?".Sullivan-County.Archivedfrom the original on 30 August 2006.Retrieved14 September2006.
  60. ^ Walter Isaacson (March–April 2004)."Benjamin Franklin: An American Life".Skeptical Inquirer.Archived fromthe originalon 12 October 2007.
  61. ^ Franklin, Benjamin(2005).Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings.New York, NY: Library of America. p. 619.ISBN1-883011-53-1.
  62. ^ "Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography".University of Maine, Farmington. Archived fromthe originalon 10 December 2012.
  63. ^Benjamin Franklin,On the Providence of God in the Government of the World(1730).
  64. ^Max Farrand, ed. (1911).The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787.Vol. 1. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 451.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2011.Retrieved26 February2011.
  65. ^Frazer, followingSydney Ahlstrom,characterizes Jefferson as a "theistic rationalist"rather than a Deist, because Jefferson believed in God's continuing activity in human affairs. SeeFrazer, Gregg L. (2012).The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation, Revolution.University Press of Kansas. p.11and 128.ISBN9780700618453.SeeAhlstrom, Sydney E. (2004).A Religious History of the American People.p. 359.SeeGary Scott Smith (2006).Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush.Oxford U.P. p. 69.ISBN9780198041153.
  66. ^abGelpi, Donald L. (2007) [2000]."Part 1: Enlightenment Religion – Chapter 3: Militant Deism".Varieties of Transcendental Experience: A Study in Constructive Postmodernism.Eugene, Oregon:Wipf and Stock.pp. 47–48.ISBN9781725220294.Archivedfrom the original on 22 January 2023.Retrieved22 January2023.
  67. ^abFischer, Kirsten (2010). Manning, Nicholas; Stefani, Anne (eds.).""Religion Governed by Terror": A Deist Critique of Fearful Christianity in the Early American Republic ".Revue Française d'Études Américaines.125(3).Paris:Belin: 13–26.doi:10.3917/rfea.125.0013.eISSN1776-3061.ISSN0397-7870.LCCN80640131– viaCairn.info.
  68. ^abPaine, Thomas(2014)."Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion, and the Superiority of the Former over the Latter (1804)".In Calvert, Jane E.; Shapiro, Ian (eds.).Selected Writings of Thomas Paine.Rethinking the Western Tradition.New Haven:Yale University Press.pp. 568–574.doi:10.12987/9780300210699-018.ISBN9780300167450.S2CID246141428.Archivedfrom the original on 27 August 2016.Retrieved7 August2021.
  69. ^In its own time it earned Paine widespread vilification. How widespread deism was among ordinary people in the United States is a matter of continued debate."Culture Wars in the Early Republic".Common-place. Archived fromthe originalon 2 March 2014.
  70. ^Walters, Kerry S.(1992).Rational Infidels: The American Deists.Durango, CO:Longwood Academic.ISBN0-89341-641-X.
  71. ^Devillere, Citizen (1987).Archives parlementaires de la révolution français.Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. pp. 361–362.
  72. ^Allen Wood argues that Kant was Deist. See "Kant's Deism" in P. Rossi and M. Wreen (eds.),Kant's Philosophy of Religion Reconsidered(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991). An argument against Kant as deist is Stephen Palmquist's "Kant's Theistic Solution".http:// hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/srp/arts/KTS.htmlArchived2005-07-22 at theWayback Machine
  73. ^Gay.(see above). “After the writings of Woolston and Tindal, English deism went into slow decline.... By the 1730s, nearly all the arguments in behalf of Deism... had been offered and refined; the intellectual caliber of leading Deists was none too impressive; and the opponents of deism finally mustered some formidable spokesmen. The Deists of these decades, Peter Annet (1693–1769), Thomas Chubb (1679–1747), and Thomas Morgan (?–1743), are of significance to the specialist alone.... It had all been said before, and better..” (p.140)
  74. ^abc Mossner, Ernest Campbell(1967). "Deism".Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Vol. 2. Collier-MacMillan. pp. 326–336.
  75. ^Van den Berg, Jan (October 2019). "The Development of Modern Deism".Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte: Journal of Religious and Cultural Studies.71(4).LeidenandBoston:Brill Publishers:335–356.doi:10.1163/15700739-07104002.eISSN1570-0739.ISSN0044-3441.S2CID211652706.
  76. ^José M. Lozano-Gotor, "Deism",Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions(Springer: 2013). "[Deism] takes different forms, for example, humanistic, scientific, Christian, spiritual deism, pandeism, and panendeism."
  77. ^Mikhail Epstein,Postatheism and the phenomenon of minimal religion in Russia,in Justin Beaumont, ed.,The Routledge Handbook of Postsecularity(2018), p. 83, n. 3: "I refer here to monodeism as the default standard concept of deism, distinct from polydeism, pandeism, and spiritual deism."
  78. ^What Is Deism?Archived2016-04-17 at theWayback Machine,Douglas MacGowan,Mother Nature Network,May 21, 2015: "Over time there have been other schools of thought formed under the umbrella of deism includingChristian deism,belief in deistic principles coupled with the moral teachings ofJesus of Nazareth,and Pandeism, a belief that God became the entire universe and no longer exists as a separate being. "
  79. ^Hartshorne, Charles (1964).Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism.Archon Books. p. 348.ISBN0-208-00498-X.
  80. ^Taylor, C (2007).A Secular Age.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.p.256.
  81. ^Taylor.(see above).p.257.
  82. ^Taylor.(see above).p.262.
  83. ^Essien, Anthonia M. "The sociological implications of the worldview of the Annang people: an advocacy for paradigm shift." Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 1.1 (2010): 29-35.
  84. ^abcdefgSteigmann-Gall, Richard(2003)."Gottgläubig:Assent of the Anti-Christians? "(PDF).The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.pp. 218–260.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511818103.009.ISBN9780511818103.Archived(PDF)from the original on 28 April 2021.Retrieved9 March2022.
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Bibliography

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Wikiquote has quotations related toDeism.

Histories

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  • Betts, C. J.Early Deism in France: From the so-called 'deistes' of Lyon (1564) to Voltaire's 'Lettres philosophiques' (1734)(Martinus Nijhoff, 1984)
  • Craig, William Lane.The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus During the Deist Controversy(Edwin Mellen, 1985)
  • Hazard, Paul.European thought in the eighteenth century from Montesquieu to Lessing(1954). pp 393–434.
  • Herrick, James A.(1997).The Radical Rhetoric of the English Deists: The Discourse of Skepticism, 1680–1750.U of South Carolina Press.
  • Hudson, Wayne.Enlightenment and modernity: The English deists and reform(Routledge,2015).
  • Israel, Jonathan I.Enlightenment contested: philosophy, modernity, and the emancipation of man 1670-1752(Oxford UP, 2006).
  • Lemay, J. A. Leo, ed.Deism, Masonry, and the Enlightenment. Essays Honoring Alfred Owen Aldridge.(U of Delaware Press, 1987).
  • Lucci, Diego.Scripture and deism: The biblical criticism of the eighteenth-century British deists(Peter Lang, 2008).
  • McKee, David Rice.Simon Tyssot de Patot and the Seventeenth-Century Background of Critical Deism(Johns Hopkins Press, 1941)
  • Orr, John.English Deism: Its Roots and Its Fruits(1934)
  • Schlereth, Eric R.An Age of Infidels: The Politics of Religious Controversy in the Early United States(U of Pennsylvania Press; 2013) 295 pages; on conflicts between deists and their opponents.
  • Willey, Basil.The Eighteenth Century Background: Studies on the Idea of Nature in the Thought of the Period(1940)
  • Yoder, Timothy S.Hume on God: Irony, deism and genuine theism(Bloomsbury, 2008).

Primary sources

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Secondary sources

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Further reading

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Wikisourcehas the text of theEncyclopædia Britannica(9th ed.) articleDeism.
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Look updeismin Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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