Deism, the religious attitude typical of the Enlightenment, especially in France and England, holds that the only way the existence of God can be proven is to combine the application of reason with observation of the world.Corfe, Robert, Deism and social ethics: the role of religion in the third millennium (Arena Books. 2007) A Deist is defined as "One who believes in the existence of a God or Supreme Being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason."Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1941 Deism was often synonymous with so-called natural religion because its principles are drawn from nature and human reasoning. In contrast to Deism there are many cultural religions or revealed religions, such as Judaism, Trinitarian Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and others, which believe in supernatural intervention of God in the world; while Deism denies any supernatural intervention and emphasizes that the world is operated by natural laws of the Supreme Being.
C. J. Betts argues that Deism was never a religion in the usual sense. It was a religion for individuals, especially the educated laity, and was most often presented as the result of the individual's unaided reflections on God and man. Deism is a religious attitude based on the belief in God and rejecting Christian belief, either implicitly or explicitly.
Definitions and distinctions The advantage of giving a standard definition of 'Deism' is to distinguish it from Christianity on the one hand and atheism on the other hand. Robert Corfe argues since deism is not organized as a church, and because it teaches self-reliance and to question authority through its intrinsic characteristics, it has little inclination to move toward the status of a highly organized body. So, it is not surprising that deism is often misunderstood and misinterpreted, even by those in academia.
The most common false perception concerning the reality of Deism is the assumption that Deism equals atheism. This misunderstanding of Deism is not a contemporary issue but it goes back to the seventeenth century as J. M. Robertson explains: "Before deism came into English vogue, the names for unbelief were simply 'infidelity' and 'atheism'- e.g. Baxter's Unreasonableness of Infidelity (1655) ... Bishop Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae deals chiefly with deistic views, but calls unbelievers in general 'atheists'... ".Robertson, John M. A Short History of Freethought, Ancient and Modern. 1915; p. 4 So, the term 'atheism' was used as a basis for rational critique before the term 'Deism' being used. But by the first half of the 18th century, when English Deism had explicitly become an intellectual movement, the term 'atheism' was only flung at Deism as a term of abuse. Anything breaking the bounds of heterodoxy was atheism in actuality.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century large numbers of individuals were in the process of detaching themselves from Christian belief and replacing it by a religious attitude in which the belief in God was independent of Church or Bible. Such a movement required an independent name which implies its own real nature, not just a name. However the invention of the words 'Deism' and 'Deist' goes back to the sixteenth century.
The first known use of the term deist was by Pierre Viret, a disciple of Calvin, in his Instruction chrétienne en la doctrine de la Loi et de l'Évangile, in Genoa (1564). Viret regarded it as an entirely new word which he claimed the Deists wished to put in opposition to atheism in avoiding the accusation of the latter. The emergence of the word in the mid-sixteenth century was mostly associated with ongoing recovery of works from antiquity. So, it is believed that Deists were humanists whose classical readings had detached them from Christian belief and who had invented a word to denote simply the belief in God. However, Betts argues that the accounts of Deists at Lyon suggest quite a different interpretation, namely that the origin of the term Deism lies in the anti-Trinitarian movement which was then an important phenomenon in the religious life of Europe. Using the word 'Deist' Verit was likely referring to a group of Lyonnaise anti-Trinitarians.
The main qualities of deism Corfe argues that since Deists have no theology, appointed priests or elders, and so no hierarchy in imposing any kind of authority, there is a wide differentiation of personal beliefs among its members. However, it is possible to depict a general sketch as a common acceptable system among Deists.
Dominance of reason Deism is a rational-based attitude which affirms the existence of God through the use of reason as opposed to revelation or dogmatic instruction of revealed religions. Reason will be elevated over fear if the old conflicts between reason and religion would be solved.
Anti-Christian attitude / Anti-Trinitarian belief Deists generally reject the Trinity, the incarnation, the divine origin and authority of the Bible, miracles, and supernatural forces. Deists believe in the Unitarian concept of God through the denial of the orthodox doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Christ.
Free will Deists believe that human beings have free will and have responsibility for choosing how they live in relation to natural laws that govern the world.
Universal and naturalistic nature Deism is a religion representing universal features of human nature. This contributed to a tendency to define religion in naturalistic terms. Deism emphasizes natural revelation.
Anti-supernatural revelation The Deistic arguments intended to eliminate the belief in a supernatural revelation through the criticism of the trustworthiness of the canon of the Scripture created by humans, as sources of final truth. Instead, Deists try to focus on what is obvious. Miracles do not occur.
Anti-clericalism Deism attacks the character of the clergy to get rid of an authority.
God does not interfere in the world Deism limits God's function to creation with no further involvement. Their concept of God is built on a mechanistic model. The world is operated by natural laws.
Generally, it is believed that Deism was largely a negative (critical) movement. John Orr distinguished Deists from theists by observing the positivism and negativism of Deism.Orr, John, English Deism: Its Roots and Its Fruits (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1934), p. 48 It could be said that the critical work of Deists was more prominent than the positive aspects of it as it was the critical aspect of Deism that affected the atmosphere of the Enlightenment through attacking the Christian revelation.
Scientific and philosophical background of Deism From the 1730s there was an international cult of Newton and Locke. The view that while the 'propagandists of the Enlightenment were French, its patron saints and pioneers were British: Bacon, Newton and Locke had such splendid reputations on the continent that they quite overshadowed the revolutionary ideas of a Descartes or a Fontenelle'.Israel, Jonathan Irvine, Radical Enlightenment: philosophy and the making of modernity, 1650–1750 (Oxford University Press, 2001) p. 516 Deism received indirect support from the physics of Isaac Newton and the philosophy of John Locke.
The scientific basis of Deism Deism owed its growing intellectual acceptance in part to the success of the Newtonian mechanical view of the world. Newton was able to demonstrate that a vast range of observational data could be explained on the basis of a set of universal principles. Newton's successes in explaining terrestrial and celestial mechanics led to the rapid development of the idea that nature and the universe could be thought of as a great machine, operating according to fixed laws. This is often referred to as a "mechanistic worldview".McGrath, Alister, //Science and Religion: A New Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) p. 28 The religious implication of this will be clear. The idea of the world as a machine immediately suggested the idea of design. Newton himself was supportive of this interpretation. The physical world, according to Newton, was explicable in terms of uniform natural laws that could be discovered by observation and formulated mathematically. By mastering these laws reason could explain cosmic events that had previously been ascribed to divine intervention. This system, Newton believed, had been designed and produced by an intelligent and powerful Creator. Close though he was to Deism, Newton differed from the strict Deists insofar as he invoked God as a special physical cause to keep the planets in stable orbits. He believed in biblical prophecies, but rejected the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation as irrational. The implications of Isaac Newton's physical theories of mechanics, which treated the universe as if it were a machine built by a creating god yet running on its own principles independent of the interference of the creating god encompassed much more than physical change and movement.
The philosophes of mid-eighteenth century France developed this mechanistic view of the universe into a radically revised version of Christianity, Deism. Drawing on Newton's description of the universe as a great clock built by the Creator and then set in motion, the Deists among the philosophes argued that everything—physical motion, human physiology, politics, society, economics—had its own set of rational principles established by God which could be understood by human beings solely by means of their reason. This meant that the workings of the human and physical worlds could be understood without having to bring religion, mysticism, or divinity into the explanation. The Deists were not atheists; they simply asserted that everything that concerned the physical and human universes could be comprehended independently of religious concerns or explanations.
Philosophical foundation of Deism
John Locke (1632–1704) John Locke's ideas supplied an epistemological grounding for Deism, though he was not a Deist himself. John Orr emphasizes the influence of Locke upon the Deistic movement by dividing the periods of Deism into Pre-Lockean and Post-Lockean. Locke accepted the existence of God as the uncaused Necessary Being, eternal, and all-knowing. He also believed in Christian revelation but he held that reason should be the ultimate judge of all truth. Revealed truths, which rested on indirect proofs from reports in Scripture and tradition, were less certain than things known directly by reason. He rejected certain Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, which in his judgment failed to meet the test of rational coherence. But, he regarded himself as a Christian because he accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah foretold in biblical prophecy; he had no difficulty in admitting the miracles ascribed in the Bible to the prophets and to Jesus.Carrigan, Cky J., The Rise and Fall of English Deism (1995) His two works that influenced the rise of English Deism were An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) and The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695). Locke led Deists to build an epistemology upon empirical foundations. John Toland and other English Deists were extremely influenced by his beliefs.
English Deists
Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648)
English Deism began with the ideas of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury in 1624. These ideas were adopted by Charles Blount in 1683 and 1695. Herbert's notion of natural religion and innate truths served as the grounds for English Deism until its decline in the middle of the eighteenth century. John Locke provided a new epistemology for Deism based on empirical foundations while keeping an open mind to matters above reason.