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The founder '''Deism''' is the combination of the intuition of the [[transcendence]] of God and the belief that God cannot, or, at least, does not, interact with, nor otherwise involve Himself in, the Creation. Deism is contrasted with [[pantheism]], in that pantheism is the combination of belief in an omnipresent Creator God and the belief that God's [[omnipresence]] implies that God ''is'' the Creation. In its mildest form, Deismis nearly equivalent to a belief that no one can truly know whether there is a God or not ([[agnosticism]]). In its strongest form, Deism is a systematic religion of rejecting all claims to a personal, or otherwise involved, God, in that God is supposed incapable, by His transcendence, of any kind of interaction with the Creation. In its typical modern form, deism is anti-[[Christian]], as it denies the divinity of [[Jesus Christ]], rejects the Bible (and all other texts) as God's scripture, and denies his signs and miracles to men. It lacks any coherent morality, and is an excuse to claim to be religious while engaging in immoral activity. Thus it is a favorite of [[liberals]] who do not want to be branded with atheism. 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.  == Origins ==In ancient times, [[Aristotle]] was a deist as is evident from his arguments for a ' 'prime mover'' in his writing, ''Metaphysics''. Even though the word ''deism'' was not yet coined, he still believed what deists believe: that God exists and is knowable through natural reason.<ref>http://www.logicmuseum.com/ontological/aristotleontological.htm</ref> The founder of the offshoot of that found a place in [[England]] during the [[Reformation]] and reached the colonies was [[Lord Herbert of Cherbury]]. <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.

:The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.<ref>American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition</ref>

The first definition refers to a conception of God sometimes called the ''[[deus otiosus]]''. The [[Catholic Church ]] would denounce Deism as a [[Heresy ]] in the 1500s, for it's 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).

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 it's 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 beleive believe in Divine Intervention, Intelligent Design, and many other ideas that would have been alien to the earlier Deists are now around.

While almost all of the Founding Fathers were devout Christians{{fact}}, some it is believed were deists, at least according to some definitions of the term. ==Paine==

==Franklin== Franklin later repudiated many of his earlier views and he believed in a God that "ought to be worshippedworshiped," and at the [[Constitutional Convention]] less than three years from his death [[Benjamin Franklin]] advocated public prayer. He praised [[Christianity]], but his letter to Ezra Stiles a month before his death was noncommittal as to the divinity of Jesus: <blockquote>"As to [[Jesus]] of [[Nazareth]], my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and His Religion as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see.. I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubt as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I need not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect Soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble. I see no harm in its being believed, if that belief has good consequences, as probably it has, of making his Doctrines more respected and better observed."</blockquote> ==George Washington==The leading Founder of the United States, George Washington, has been claimed as a deist during the past forty years, despite written evidence to the contrary, both in Washington's writings as well as the writings of his contemporaries. An Episcopalian, Washington rented church pews in various cities and acted as usher; the pew Washington rented at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City is still preserved.<ref>http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60763-d105055-i36367014-St_Paul_s_Chapel-New_York_City_New_York.html</ref> The tenents of his church during the 18th and 19th centuries were such that outward displays of [[piety]] and religiosity were avoided,<ref>Novak, pg 12</ref> in keeping with the Christian practice of Matthew 6:5: ''"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward."'' (King James Version). Anglican manners seek a "middle ground", which for all intents and purposes was a path that would find the least devisiveness, to avoid or give offense, to keep the peace, and yet to keep space open for shared ideas.<ref>Novak, pg. 12</ref> The rules for a "gentleman" stated that a "devout" man kept his devotion restrained in public; Washington himself was described by witnesses and biographers as such a man, one who kept his religion and beliefs private. But when Washington did speak of religion and his faith, he strongly indicated which faith he was talking about. In May, 1789, he sent a letter to the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches: :''"While I reiterate the professions of my dependence upon Heaven as the source of all public and private blessings; I will observe that the general prevalence of piety; philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy seems, in the ordinary course of human affairs, particularly necessary for advancing and conforming the happiness of our country. While all men within our territories and protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of their consciences; it is rationally to be expected from them in return, that they will be emulous of evincing the sanctity of their professions by the innocence of their lives and the beneficence of their actions; for no man, who is profligate in his morals, or a bad member of the civil community, can possibly be a true Christian, or a credit to his own religious society."''<ref>http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=392</ref> On May 12, 1779, while in the midst of the [[American Revolution]], Washington [[George Washington's Speech to the Delaware Chiefs|gave a speech]] to the Delaware Chiefs in which he gave the following advice::''"Brothers: I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal Chiefs to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the Arms of love to them, and will look upon them as their own Children, and will have them educated accordingly. This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve the friendship between the Two Nations to the end of time, and to become One people with your Brethren of the United States. My ears hear with pleasure the other matters you mention. Congress will be glad to hear them too. You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention; and to tie the knot of friendship and union so fast, that nothing shall ever be able to loose it."'' *"[[George Washington|Washington]] cannot be called a Deist — at least, not in a sense that excludes his being Christian. Although he did most often address God in the proper names a Deist might use — such as "Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be" and "Disposer of all human events" — the actions that Washington expected God to perform, as expressed both in his official public prayers (whether as general or as president) and in his private prayers as recorded, are the sorts of actions only the God of the Bible performs: interposing his actions in human events, forgiving sins, enlightening minds, bringing good harvests, intervening on behalf of one party in a struggle between good and evil (in this case, between liberty and the deprivation of liberty), etc." <ref>http://old.nationalreview.com/novak/novak.asp</ref>

Another ==Modern Deism==Modernly, as noted above, Deism has both declined and fractured, with some of its original ideas being adopted as part of "[[Founding Fathernew age]] described as a deist was " movements. Variations of Deism that have developed or been proposed include [[Thomas JeffersonPandeism]]. Jefferson personally struggled with (enunciated in the divinity of Christ 1850s, and produced an edited version of the Gospelsmerging Deism with [[Pantheism]], later known as the idea that God is equal to the Universe); [[Jefferson BiblePolydeism]] (merging Deism with [[polytheism]], which contained only proposing that multiple Gods created then abandoned the moral Universe); and ethical teachings of Jesus and omitted third-person accounts [[Panendeism]] (merging Deism with the 1830s idea of his life[[Panentheism]], particularly that the accounts Universe was part of the miraclesGod, but was also transcended by God). None of these offshoots has garnered a significant following relative to organized religions, although it should be noted that many strains of [[Hinduism]] are in fact Pandeism.

Ten years from his death Jefferson stated that "[The Jefferson Bible] show that I am a real Though many claim deism is Christian, that today's deism as it stands is to saysquarely anti-Christian; it denies the involvement of God in human affairs, removes Him from a disciple personal relationship with individuals, replaces it with a man-made philosophy considered "superior", and leaves unanswered the question of sin. In the doctrines Book of Revelation, Jesusclearly gives an answer to such a "half-in, very different from half-out" philosophy::''And unto the Platonists, who call me infidelangel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and themselves Christians and preachers true witness, the beginning of the gospelcreation of God;'':''I know thy works, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its Author never said that thou art neither cold nor sawhot: I would thou wert cold or hot."<ref>Jefferson'':''So then because thou art lukewarm, Letter and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.'':''Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:'':''I counsel thee to Charles Thomsonbuy of me gold tried in the fire, January 9that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.'' (Revelation, Ch. 3:14-18, 1815</ref>KJV)

The closer Jefferson approached his death, the more Christian he appeared. He read the Bible daily as the end grew near. His grandson described Jefferson as follows:==References==<refsmall>Thomas Jefferson Randolph, undated letter to biographer Henry S. Randall, reprinted in Masfield et al., ''The Real Thomas Jefferson'', p. 321.<references/ref></small>

:He was regular in his attendance [at] church*Washington, taking his prayer book with himGeorge. He drew the plan ''Writings''; Library of the Episcopal church in CharlottesvilleAmerica, was one of the largest contributors to its erectionNew York (1997)*Novak, Michael, and contributed regularly to the support of its ministerNovak, Jana. I paid''Washington's God: Religion, after his deathLiberty, his subscription of $200 to the erection of the Presbyterian church in the same village. A gentleman of some distinction calling on him and expressing his disbelief in the truths Father of the Bible, his reply was, Our Country;'Then' Basic Books, sir, you have studied it to little purpose.'"New York (2006)

==See Also==:*[http://thedcl.org/christia/s/stephwill/agodeieg/agodeieg.html An Account of the Growth of Deism in England] by William Stephens.*[https://books.google.com/books?id=LanKhFle9BUC ''America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln''], Mark A. Noll, 3rd Ed.,Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0195151119, 9780195151114

[[Category:ReligionTypes of Theism]]