Deism
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[edit] Definition
Deism is the belief in an impersonal God who does not intervene in the course of Nature; hence they regard accounts of miracles as "superstition" and don't believe there is any value in prayers for God to intervene on behalf of the suplicant. Deists reject the idea that religious scriptures such as the Bible constitute a revelation from God. However, they argue that the existence of God can be deduced from nature, or on philosophical grounds, such as the argument for a First Cause.
[edit] Origins
Deism was part of the Stoic and Epicurean philosophies in Ancient Greece. It was revived, or reinvented, during the Enlightenment by European and American thinkers: the seminal text of modern Deism is Thomas Paine's book The Age of Reason [1] published in 1794. As Deism is not an organized religion, it is hard to say how many Deists there are today.
[edit] Quotations
- "A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness." (Epicurus [2])
- "It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication- after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner." (Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason [3])
- "But some, perhaps, will say: Are we to have no word of God- no revelation? I answer, Yes; there is a word of God; there is a revelation. THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD and it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man. [...] Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is governed! Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the Scripture called the Creation." (Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason [4])
- "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God." (Albert Einstein [5])
