Deism

             What is Deism? Deism is an eighteenth- century religious belief that privileges reason over faith and rejects traditional religious tenets or general belief in benevolent creator. Deism is not a specific religion but rather a particular perspective on the nature of God. Deists believe that a creator God does exist but that after the motions of the universe were set in place he retreated, having no further interaction with the cretaed universe of the beings within it. Deism originated in the Ages of Reason and the Enlightenment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During thsi time many people became interested in scientific explanations about the world and became more skeptical of magic and miracles. Deists believe there is no need for worship because the deist God is entirely removed from involvement, he has neither need nor want of worship. Deists do not believe i sin and instead assume human beings are basicaly good. They believe in the exsistence of Supreme Being, Divine Watchmaker and Grand Architect of the Universe. To get a better understaning of deism I found three defintions. One, is the belief in the exsistence of a personal God, based solely on the testimony of reason and rejecting any supernatural revelation; natural religion. Two, is the belief that God created the world and set it in motion, subject to natural laws, but takes no interest in it. the third definition is the belief in a first cause which is not intrinsically perfect or complete, and therefore not a proper object worship. A large number of the Unites States Founding Fathers were deists or had strong deist leanings. These include: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.


                                                        Works Cited
Loflin, Lewis. "Exploring Deism Its Origins and History." 1981. Web. 18 Oct 2012.

-Alexandria Miller