Deism

Historical and modern Deism is defined by the view that reason, rather than revelation or tradition, should be the basis of belief in God. Deists reject organized religion and promote reason as the essential element in making moral decisions. This "rational" basis was usually founded upon the cosmological argument (first cause argument), the teleological argument (argument from design), and other aspects of what was called natural religion. Deism has become identified with the classical belief that God created but does not intervene in the world, though this is not a necessary component of deism.

18th century popularity

Deistic thinking has existed since ancient times and can be inferred from pre-Socratic philosophers such as Heraclitus. However, it was not until the modern era, during the European Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, with their respective emphases on rigorous skepticism (logic/deduction) and empiricism (experience/induction), that deism came into its own as a subject of philosophical discourse, particularly in France (Descartes, the Philosophes), Germany (Kant,† Leibniz), Great Britain (Hobbes, Hume), and the United States (Paine, Franklin).

Related Topics:
Pre-Socratic - Heraclitus - Modern era - Enlightenment - Scientific Revolution - Skepticism - Empiricism - France - Descartes - Philosophes - Germany - Kant - Leibniz - Great Britain - Hobbes - Hume - United States - Paine - Franklin

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Deism developed from the expanding influence of scientism in European and European colonial intellectual life. Newtonian physics, the intellectual basis and the aesthetic model for Enlightenment scientism, spread the idea that matter behaves in a mathematically predictable manner that can be understood by postulating laws of nature. Objectivity, natural equality, the prescription to treat like cases similarly are central principles of the Enlightenment mentality, ideas borrowed from Newton's observational/experimental method and put to use in all domains the Enlightenment mind scrutinized; these principles informed the development of the philosophy of deism. Exasperation with the costs of centuries of European religious warfare was a powerful recommendation for the new, objective frame for spiritual matters, a perspective the most notable minds of the time found appealing.

Related Topics:
Scientism - Newtonian physics - Enlightenment

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Deism was championed by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and some of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin are among the most well-known of the American founding deists. Thomas Paine published The Age of Reason, a treatise that popularized deism throughout America and Europe. Paine wrote that deism represented the application of reason to religion, finally settling problems that formerly were thought to be permanently controversial. Deists hoped to also settle religious questions permanently and scientifically by reason alone, without revelation.

Related Topics:
Voltaire - Founding Fathers - United States - Thomas Jefferson - Benjamin Franklin - Thomas Paine - The Age of Reason

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The first six and four later Presidents of the United States had strong deistic or allied beliefs.

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First six and four later - Presidents of the United States - Allied

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