39,327
edits
Deism: Difference between revisions
m
cleanup {{Useful Notes}}
m (clean up) |
m (cleanup {{Useful Notes}}) |
||
Line 1:
{{Useful Notes}}
'''Deism''' is a theological theory proposing that a god created the Universe but has since refrained from any activity in it. It was espoused by many US founding fathers including [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[Thomas Jefferson]] and Thomas Paine. The ideology extols a reasoned evaluation of the scientific evidence as supporting a nonintervening Creator, and dismisses accounts of miracles and revelations. Essentially, you can view it as God created the Universe, set up all the laws of reality and everything, then totally lost interest. He's still "around" but he doesn't do much, if anything, to interfere with mortal lives (And if He did, we [[Mere Mortals]] probably wouldn't be in the loop; after all, God Works In Mysterious Ways...)
▲'''Deism''' is a theological theory proposing that a god created the Universe but has since refrained from any activity in it. It was espoused by many US founding fathers including [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[Thomas Jefferson]] and Thomas Paine. The ideology extols a reasoned evaluation of the scientific evidence as supporting a nonintervening Creator, and dismisses accounts of miracles and revelations. Essentially, you can view it as God created the Universe, set up all the laws of reality and everything, then totally lost interest. He's still "around" but he doesn't do much, if anything, to interfere with mortal lives (And if He did, we [[Mere Mortals]] probably wouldn't be in the loop; after all, God Works In Mysterious Ways...)
== History ==
The concept could be traced back to Aristotle's unmoved mover but Lord Herbert of Cherbury is considered the first deist. Although he based his beliefs off of Christianity being one of many religions claiming to be the one true way his God was still a personal god who supernaturally interfered in the universe. In particular deists from this era were tired of the devastation caused by religious institutions and ideas, and were looking for a true model of the cosmos that logic would dictate everybody had to agree on. It wasn't until John Locke's ''An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'' and the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century that deism took the form of what we now know as Classical Deism.
Classical deism is similar to Modern Deism in that they're both based on reason and naturalism but Classical Deism's evolution from Christianity is more readily apparent. Classical Deism didn't have the benefit of evolution, the big bang theory, or even an idea of how old the earth and universe were. Newton's theory of gravity and Copernicus's heliocentric model of the universe were the best they had to go on. They viewed God as transcendental from its creation and impersonal. At the time deism was part of a continuum with Christianity. Christian Deism and unitarianism were situated in the middle. Conservatives site this ambiguity in their defense of the founding fathers being Christian and Liberals site the lack of scientific knowledge at the time as to why the founding fathers didn't slide more towards the deism side.
Line 15 ⟶ 14:
Modern variations include:
* [[Pandeism]]: which incorporates [[Pantheism]], the archetype for [[Pieces of God]]
* Panendeism: incorporates panentheism
* Christian Deism: a hybrid between Christian and Deist beliefs. It rejects Jesus's divinity and other supernatural claims of the bible but stands by Jesus's moral teachings, holding him up as Christian Deism's central philosopher.
Line 30 ⟶ 29:
=== Tropes ===
* [[The American Revolution]]: Deism would probably be almost completely forgotten today, if not for the fact that many leaders of the American Revolution considered themselves Deists. As philosophically-minded, anti-establishment figures in the 18th century, it's practically certain that at least a few of them would be. While exact numbers are hard to pin down and the [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment]] applies, it's unquestionable that [[Thomas Jefferson]] took it upon himself to edit supernatural elements out of [[The Bible]], and [[Ben Franklin]] found Deism so persuasive it led to a good quote for [[Straw Man Has a Point]].
* [[Have You Seen My God?]] : practically the [[Trope Maker]].
* [[Older Than Feudalism]] : associated with the Enlightenment, but the idea originates in Ancient Greece.
Line 39 ⟶ 38:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Deism]]
| |||