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| | Deism is also only a short step away from [[atheism]], and deistic beliefs often create a slippery slope to atheism{{fact}}. This is a common tactic of atheist evangelists: first convince a Christian that God has left the world alone, and then deny the necessity of God. Atheism and Deism are, for the most part, morally and cosmologically equivalent, given God's presumed inaction of any moral and cosmological revelation, an exception being that Atheism more easily permits worship of man by man while Deism holds that God is greater than man. | | Deism is also only a short step away from [[atheism]], and deistic beliefs often create a slippery slope to atheism{{fact}}. This is a common tactic of atheist evangelists: first convince a Christian that God has left the world alone, and then deny the necessity of God. Atheism and Deism are, for the most part, morally and cosmologically equivalent, given God's presumed inaction of any moral and cosmological revelation, an exception being that Atheism more easily permits worship of man by man while Deism holds that God is greater than man. |
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| − | == Origins ==
| + | DEISTS ARE WAY BETTER THAN CHRISTIANS |
| − | The founder of the offshoot of that found a place in TEXAS during the SEXUAL ENGAGEMENT and reached the colonies was Jerry Sandusky of Penn Stater. <ref>http://www.theologicalstudies.org/what_is_deism.html</ref> He came up with 5 essentials of Deism which are "(1) a belief in the existence of the Deity, (2) the obligation to reverence such a power, (3) the identification of worship with practical morality, (4) the obligation to repent of sin and to abandon it, and, (5) divine recompense in this world and the next"<ref>http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/deismeng.htm</ref>. This was a rather odd variant mixing in many Christian virtues without Jesus, and rather foreign to traditional Deism.
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| − | Dictionaries' definitions of '''deism''' include:
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| − | :The belief, based solely on reason, in a
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| − | :"a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe."<ref>Merriam-Webster online: [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/deism deism]</ref>
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| − | The first definition refers to a conception of God sometimes called the ''[[deus otiosus]]''.
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| − | The West Borough Baptist Church would denounce Deism as a [[Heresy]] in the 1500s, for its rejection of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the importance of the church, and eschewing the idea of Divine Intervention. While Lord Herbert would found the movement, by the 1800s his arguments were largely demolished by the philosopher Locke and his deconstruction of the concept of an 'Innate Truth'(Upon which much of Herbert's views on Deism were founded).
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| − | Matthew Tindal is generally credited with the modern incarnation of Deism and that practiced by the Founding Fathers who were Deists. "God designed all Mankind should at all times know, what he wills them to know, believe, profess, and practice; and has given them no other Means for this, but the Use of Reason."
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| − | Deism would enjoy a brief rise in the Western world through the 1800s, but by the early 20th century, it was on the decline. The Unitarian movement would absorb most of its teachings and eventually produce the Unitarian Universalists. Deism today is a mixed bag without dogma or teachings beyond the idea that one should employ Reason to understand the universe. As a result, Deists who believe in Divine Intervention, Intelligent Design, and many other ideas that would have been alien to the earlier Deists are now around.
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| | ==Deism and the Founding Fathers== | | ==Deism and the Founding Fathers== |