Deism in America

"The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ."

Thomas Jefferson

What is below is well stated for a Christian publication. Perhaps the fundamentalists can explain this from Christianity in America, a Handbook, 1983 William B. Eardmans Publishing company.

To quote page 164: (in regards to the Revolutionary War)

If the war seemed particularly unfriendly to the church, it also accelerated Enlightenment values, natural theology, and secularized thought. Revolutionary heroes like Ethan Allen (Reason the Only Oracle of Man, 1784) and Thomas Paine (Age of Reason, 1794-1796) launched savage attacks upon orthodox Christianity and advocated Deism, a system of thought that dispensed with revelation, ridiculed the Incarnation-a Creator meddling with the laws of the universe-and exalted human reason and ethical endeavors. The first three elected Presidents of the United States-Washington, Adams, and Jefferson-all advocated a form of reasonable religion that drained the supernatural from religion and valued piety primarily for its civic utility.

Although this form of enlightened religion never came to command the allegiance of most common people, it did enjoy great popularity among educated Americans and was quite the intellectual rage among college students in the last two decades of the eighteenth century. At Princeton in 1782 only two students professed Christianity, and Bishop Meade wrote that the College of William and Mary had become a hotbed of French skepticism. In assessing what it meant that only five Yale students belonged to the college church in New Haven in 1800, Lyman Beecher lamented: "That was the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine school. Boys that dressed flax in the barn, as I used to, read him and believed him."

What follows is from another "deism" website I won't mention:

Deism, as theology, abstracts divinity as the perfectly reasonable and orderly originator of the universe. Unlike traditional Christianity and other ancient concepts of divinity, Deism does not assume a human-like god busily interfering with natural law to achieve his ends and prove his existence to doubtful followers. Instead, the divinely perfect reason created the perfect universe and has no need to interfere with it. Evidence of its perfection is in Nature itself and in natural laws discoverable through the new empiricism of the Age of Reason. An obvious extrapolation is that science is a way of worshipping divinity (see Jefferson's "Letter to Peter Carr").

The only problem is Jefferson said no such thing. It's a lie. See Thomas Jefferson and Peter Carr

Quoting The Exaltation of a Reasonable Deity: Thomas Jefferson's Critique of Christianity (an extract) by JEREMY KOSELAK:

Of course Jefferson injected originality into what he learned; but he relied heavily upon the works of...four key philosophers: John Locke, Thomas Paine, Viscount Bolingbroke (Lord Kames), and Joseph Priestley.

Thomas Jefferson's religious philosophy was most heavily influenced by the writings of John Locke. Two works by Locke, A Letter on Toleration (1689) and The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), specifically shaped Jefferson's bill for establishing religious freedom. Locke presented a philosophical justification for religious toleration, one that Jefferson advocated in his writings and actions. Locke's belief in toleration, that "no man, even if he would, can believe at another's dictation" induced Jefferson's internalization of religion. Jefferson emulated this doctrine of toleration, advocating that privacy and freedom meant everything in a personal relationship with the Supreme Creator. Locke coupled his emphasis on toleration with intellectual support of an eventual day of reckoning before a just God, further influencing Jefferson's understanding of religion's role in society. Even though Jefferson rejected many orthodox Christian beliefs, he sided with Locke and whole-heartedly envisioned this day that God alone would evaluate one's life. It was this belief in the future judgement that naturally led to increased incentives for morality linked to self-interest.7 The future judgement provided impetus for a society to function cohesively under the premise of universal accountability. Jefferson found this argument both reasonable and necessary to the success of United States (and the world) at large.

Jefferson adapted the reasonable qualities of Locke's argument with the philosophical underpinnings of Thomas Paine's natural theology. Jefferson extensively studied Paine's The Age of Reason and agreed with Paine's convictions that it was a grave injustice to lock God into a sacred text. This understanding of Paine immeasurably influenced Jefferson's dealings with the Bible. For Paine, the Word of God "IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD" and through this, "God speaketh universally to man." Jefferson absorbed this naturalism and sought to comprehend God in the laws of the universe, not doctrinal truths locked in scripture. For both Paine and Jefferson, the God in the Bible did not appeal to reason. That God required complex doctrines and priestly authority to guide in His9 discovery, excluding many from relating to God on a personal basis. For the reasonable person, the evidence available in creation was all that was necessary. God was not only reachable but also understandable. Based largely on Paine's influence, Jefferson focused his critique upon such exclusivity, diligently seeking to free Christianity from the darkness.

More influential than both Paine and Locke in terms of Jefferson's critique of Christianity was Joseph Priestley. Jefferson was captivated with Priestlely, a Unitarian minister, and read his History of the Corruptions of Christianity with vigor. Jefferson claimed that the book was the "groundwork of my view of this subject (corruptions of Christianity)" and in general a major tenet "of my own faith." Priestley's critique of Christianity was founded on the idea that reason and faith should function together to forge a stronger belief system. By convincing Jefferson that faith and reason could co-exist, Priestley played the critical role of rescuing Jefferson from totally rejecting Christianity. Or, at least, Priestley paved the way for paring away the corruptions, with the result that a reasonable person could be a Christian. Priestley justified a simplistic Christianity, one founded on reason, and Jefferson discovered the merits in the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth due in large part to Priestley's reasonable defense of faith.

Another major influence upon Jefferson's theological development was Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. Evidence of Bolingbroke's importance, Jefferson recorded sixty pages in his "Literary Bible" quoting and paraphrasing Viscount Bolingbroke, the longest single entry and the only one specifically about Christianity. These entries illustrate the most important contribution Bolingbroke made to Jefferson's theology, which was to argue against inspiration of the Bible because it was full of "gross defects and palpable falsehoods...such as no man who acknowledges a supreme all-perfect being can believe to be his [Jesus] word." Jefferson found merit in this ideology, and his criticism of Christianity reflects Bolingbroke's influence. For both Bolingbroke and Jefferson, those (referring to priests specifically) relying on inspiration and expounding doctrines based on revelation had created an imperfect image of God. Jefferson defended his rational God consistently on this basis. Adapting the religious ideas of Bolingbroke along with Locke, Paine, and Priestley, Jefferson forged an eclectic faith based on reason that he would build upon his entire life.

Jefferson molded and absorbed these various ideologies (among others) and elevated God to the stature of Rational Creator. As many enlightened reformers of his age rejected God and Christianity alike, Jefferson found a way to justify belief. By simplifying religion and remaining aloof to exclusivistic tendencies, Jefferson produced a rational theology that, although was at times considered outlandish, was not unique or radical. It may not have exactly fit the bill of orthodox traditionalism, but Jefferson stood amongst powerful company in his perception of a reasonable Deity. For instance, several of the Founding Fathers held an accepted belief in general principles of religion.

These general principles of religion presented a belief structure independent of interpretation. Simple religion, as far as Jefferson and Franklin were concerned, represented what all could agree upon. Jefferson's axiom that "What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong," formed the basic framework of amiability that ultimately characterized his theology.

As Ben Franklin noted in a letter to Ezra Stiles in 1790 what Deism is all about:

Here is my creed. I believe in One God, the Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we can render Him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion. (Salisbury, Dorothy Cleaveland. "Religion: As the Leaders of this Nation Reveal It." Daughters of the American Revolution Vol.106 (1972): page 541.)

The entire article can be read at http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/1999/Paper9.html

Read Jefferson's own words see
Thomas Jefferson: Deist or Christian? Debunking Dr James Kennedy

RATIONAL RELIGION IN THE UNITED STATES

Reproduced from A History of Christian Theology: An Introduction
by William C. Placher (1983)

In intellectual circles on the East Coast, the Great Awakening Proved only a temporary delay in the advancing march of rational religion. By the time of the struggles for independence, many American leaders were more or less Deists. Asked about the divinity of Christ, Benjamin Franklin admitted, "It is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect so soon [he wrote this as a very old man] an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble." He would have agreed with Thomas Jefferson that "he who steadily observes those moral precepts in which all religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of heaven, as to the dogmas in which they all differ." Jefferson even produced a special edition of the New Testament, which included Jesus' teachings but left out all the miracles.

In spite of such attitudes, in 1776 every state except Rhode Island still required some sort of religious affirmation from anyone seeking public office, and Connecticut (until 1818), New Hampshire (until 1819) and Massachusetts (until 1833) still recognized an established church with special privileges and tax support. People like Jefferson and Franklin naturally sought to limit the churches' influence on the state, but it was principally the sheer fact of religious diversity which ruled out an established church on the national level. Congregationalists dominated Massachusetts, Anglicans Virginia, and so on, but no denomination had a dominant position in the whole country. As a result, while few Americans moved as far in the direction of Deism as Jefferson or Franklin, a least-common-denominator Christianity rather like Deism came to characterize public occasions in the United States.

To that extent, rationalism in religion made its mark on the whole country, but in the early 1800s it took an institutional form in Unitarianism. Unitarians have remained few in number and have not spread far-giving rise to the gibe that they believe in the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the neighborhood of Boston - but their influence on American intellectual life has been out of all proportion to their numbers. They began with an emphasis on reason and divine benevolence. They rejected the Trinity as irrational. They insisted that a good God would not let everyone fall into sin because of Adam's fault or predestine anyone to damnation. In the words of William Ellery Channing, minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston for forty years and the most distinguished spokesman of Unitarianism, "A natural constitution of the mind unfailingly disposing it to evil ... would absolve it from guilt ... and argue unspeakable cruelty [on God's part]; and ... to punish the sin of this unhappily constituted child with endless ruin would be a wrong unparalleled by the most merciless despotism." Unitarians read their Bibles and believed in miracles, but they approached these matters rationally too. Good evidence proved that miracles had occurred, and the miracles in turn established the authority of whoever performed them. "Christianity," Charming wrote, "is not a deduction of philosophy ... intelligible but to a few. It is ... sealed by miracles ... which are equally intelligible, striking, and appealing to all."

Deism in Brief

Deists, Unitarians, and Socinians are all products and heretics of the Protestant Reformation. Their opponents labeled the them (anti-Trinitarian) Christians after the old heresies such as Ebionites and Arians. The Socinians were well praised and read by people like John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Isaac Newton, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Socinians, Unitarians and Deists all reject the following Orthodox Christian theology:

• The doctrine of the Trinity is false because there is no Scriptural evidence for it.
• Jesus was human, though an exceptional human, not God in any manner.
• Jesus' death was not an atonement for our sins nor did God demand that someone suffer for our sins.
• The following doctrines are false: original sin, predestination of the elect, the inherent depravity of human beings, and eternal damnation.
• The "faith alone" doctrine of Protestants.

Ref. from The Philosophical Legacy of the 16th and 17th Century Socinians: Their Rationality by Marian Hillar, Texas Southern University

They were inspired by a sincere application of original Christianity to personal, social, and political relations. Their ideology was characterized from the beginning by:

Further:

In Socinianism or mature Unitarianism a question was raised as to the role of reason in religious matters and especially what was the relationship between reason and Revelation. Faustus Socinus maintained that:

The argument between revelation and reason goes on:

See the following:, Original Sin, Calvinism, The Trinity

In England, Deism was critically concerned with the origins of religion, but positive in moral and religious affirmation. Early English Deists believed that the Bible contained important truths, but they rejected the concept that it was divinely inspired or inerrant. They were leaders in the study of the Bible as a historical (rather than an inspired, revealed) document. Lord Herbert of Cherbury (d. 1648) was one of the earliest proponents of Deism in England. In his book "De Veritate," (1624), he described the "Five Articles" of English Deists:

• belief in the existence of a single supreme God
• humanity's duty is to revere God
• linkage of worship with practical morality
• God will forgive us if we repent and abandon our sins
• good works will be rewarded (and punishment for evil) both in life and after death.

The Christian Church abandoned the historical Jesus in favor of Paul, a man that never even Jesus. His idea of a "Christ" was preferred over the basic teachings of Jesus best illustrated by the Sermon on the Mount. The Deist/Unitarian view of Jesus is similar to the Muslim or Jewish view.

The Christian definition of Deism that "God created the universe then went away..." is wrong. To quote another Deist' website:

Deism, as we define it, is a belief in a loving creator, an ultimate, eternal being, who is omnipresent and omniscient and perfectly good, but not omnipotent. This definition, with important qualifications, has substantial basis in philosophical history, despite the all-too widespread impression that the deistic creator is indifferent to its creation. The popular analogy for the deistic god is a supernatural watchmaker who may for all we know be fascinated by its handiwork, but is definitely not emotionally involved.

That analogy, however, is a simplistic historical caricature. It has been truly said that history is written by the victors. This is clearly the case with deism, since the popular notion of what it means has been disseminated in a culture dominated by the Christian religion. Let us attempt to set the record straight here. Contrary to popular Christian propaganda, ultimate reality ("god" if you prefer) as conceived by deism is not impersonal at all, merely non-omnipotent, hence non-controlling, and thus not in a position to provide people with the miracles on demand for which they so often yearn.

Many Deist' positions are clearly compatible with basic Christian, Jewish, and Muslim precepts. A cursory reading of Thomas Paine establishes that we are not atheists, as sometimes accused of by Christians because atheists misuse our beliefs to attack God. Deists instead held a deep belief grounded in reasoned analysis that God exists, and that atheism is to be resisted no less than is religious fanaticism.

English/American Deism was more concerned with ethics and morality but rejected irrational dogma manufactured by the church based on Paul alone. This put Jesus the man as a moral teacher over the disembodied Christ of Paul's vision interpreted through St. Augustine then through Calvin and Luther. English/American Deists placed reason over revelation and accept revelation (or intuition perhaps) if supported by reason. They kept Jesus, rejected Paul. Paul was in many ways like Mohammed, a messenger of revelations from what he claimed was God. But how much was Paul and how much, if anything, was from God? How could we know?

Let me be very clear that Unitarians/Deists reject the false image if God as presented in the Koran, Bible, and Torah. God/Allah is often depicted as a raving and violent tyrant that murders or orders the murder of anyone seen as breaking endless petty rules. God is not involved in everyday petty affairs. If God wanted blind sheep just to follow rules, God would never have given mankind the ability to think. This is the worst form of idolatry in seeing God acting as an enraged, irrational human. Unitarians and Deists never put human evil emotions on God just to justify some action we know is wrong.

Voltaire's Deism

Deism entered France, but only its materialistic and revolutionary phases were seized upon, to the exclusion of religious values which had never been lost in England or America. French Deism stood outside of theology and laid the groundwork for atheism, secular humanism, and cultural relativism. American Deists were mainly influenced by English Deism and perhaps French Deist Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Michel de Montaigne is the father of moral and cultural relativism. It argues (falsely in my opinion) that all cultures be it cannibals in mud huts or Paris are equal because they rest on cultural habit rather than absolute truth. Who are Europeans to insist that Brazilian cannibals who merely consume dead human flesh instead of wasting it are morally inferior to Europeans who persecute and oppress those of whom they disapprove? This would also apply to morals as well: If we cannot be certain that our values are God-given, then we have no right to impose them by force on others. Thus homosexually, abortion, sex with animals, sex with children, etc. are a private matter that society has no right to regulate or interfere with.

French Deism was anti-Catholic and anti-religious in general, shading into skepticism, atheism, and materialism. When people speak of Deism today they often think of French Deism, which has little in common with English/American Deism which was known often as Unitarianism. While Deism began in England and influenced Voltaire, he would strip away all of the religious aspects.

Voltaire was attracted to the philosophy of John Locke and Isaac Newton. He studied England's Constitutional Monarchy, its religious tolerance, its philosophical rationalism and most important the natural sciences. Voltaire greatly admired English religious toleration and freedom of speech, and saw these as a necessary prerequisites for social and political progress. He saw England as a useful model for what he considered to be a backward France. Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses. To Voltaire only an enlightened monarch, advised by philosophers like himself, could bring about change as it was in the king's rational interest to improve the power and wealth of France in the world. Voltaire is quoted as saying that he "would rather obey one lion, than 200 rats of (his own) species." Voltaire essentially believed monarchy to be the key to progress and change. He is best known in this day and age for his novel Candide (1759) and saying such things as "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." To Voltaire God was so remote to the point of practical atheism.

Voltaire's chief adversary was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who distrusted the aristocrats because he believed they were betraying decent traditional values. He shunned the aristocracy which Voltaire courted, and argued for something dangerously like democratic revolution. Voltaire argued that equality was impossible, Rousseau argued that inequality was not only unnatural, but that--when taken too far--it made decent government impossible. Rousseau seems to be the main French influence. True to the position of Deism in connecting this moral "sentiment " with a belief in God, Rousseau rejected the notion of separation between the two. I'll look more into Rousseau.

France and French culture would dominate Europe and export these ideas to the Muslim world and America. According to Bernard Lewis, by the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Muslim leaders realized that they were falling behind and began sending students to the West in order to learn about the new things, especially military things, to be found there. This raised the religious and legal question as to whether it was permissible to imitate the infidels. This is why there was great sympathy for the French Revolution at first, which projected itself in the East as anti-Christian. But under the Empire and the Restoration, France lost its appeal." France is still exporting garbage into the Muslim world even today.

It is this distorted materialism and closet atheism that traditional Deists such as Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine rejected. What Voltaire wanted was the philosophy stripped of its religious roots and morals. This along with nationalism would directly influence men such as Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. He had some good ideas, but I think he took secularization and nationalism too far. This has begun to create a fundamentalist backlash in Turkey. The Turkish record on human rights is terrible.

Who is Nature's God?

Deists can embrace natural law. An understanding of this is essential to an understanding the American Founding Fathers, who incorporated many of these ideas into American Law. Deist authors were generally well familiar with the moral writings of these ancient authors, particularly the works of Cicero, whose work "De Officiis" is an excellent statement of Natural Law ethics. See http://www.stoics.com/. Religious fundamentalists revile natural law as a threat to their own authority. The Stoics by the way were not Deists as claimed by many "deism" websites.

It is a serious mistake to think natural law alone is the foundation of the Constitution. Natural law predates Christianity and is on many points just plain vague. It's a good system of government but vague and open-ended on many moral issues. This must be used within religious traditions or we risk having a ship without a rudder.

Jefferson's ideas are consistent with the ideas of traditional deism, a general religious orientation developed before the Enlightenment. Deism was not actually a formal religion, but rather was a label used loosely to describe certain religious views. The label was often applied to freethinkers like Jefferson as a slander rather than as a precise description. Deists were characterized by a belief in God as a creator and "believed only those Christian doctrines that could meet the test of reason." Deists did not believe in miracles, questioned claims of revealation, rejected the authority of the clergy, and rejected the divinity of Jesus. Like Jefferson they "regarded ethics, not faith, as the essence of religion."

"Nature's God" was clearly the God of Deism in all important ways. But "Nature's God" can be clearly linked to the God of the Bible, considered a man-made distortion. That Jefferson included God in the "Declaration of Independence" is very significant because it helped lay the foundation for a civil religion in America. The United States is unique because all religious beliefs were tolerated, at least in general.

But in the 19th century based on Voltaire's closet atheism all traditional religious morals and guidance would be silenced and the use of natural law alone would prevail with horrible effect. Quoting Turgut Özal in Philosophies of Islam, Greece, and the West on the Jewish Holocaust: During the era of the Enlightenment, which is characterized together with Christianity as the basis of Western civilisation...the outburst of reason did not only destroy the irrational elements in the religion, but partly the religion itself... primitive religion has been revived...as a result of which hostility was generated towards target groups in the form of persecution and ultimately genocide along with the increase in wars between nation states. The French Revolution, Voltaire (called the father of the French Revolution by Cliff Notes), and Rousseau became the foundation of modern secular horrors such as socialism/communism and fascism. We will explore more on that theme.

The American Deists rejected both atheism and religious fanaticism. The Age of Reason was written to dispute atheism and the evil trends Paine saw in France and Europe. To summarize, traditional Deism emphasized reason over revelation and that God is non-controlling. Human rights are might be based on some vague notions of Natural Law, but morality, according to Jefferson, is grounded on God. As Thomas Paine wrote: religion has two principal enemies, fanaticism and infidelity, or that which is called atheism. The first requires to be combated by reason and morality, the other by natural philosophy.

From: The Existence of God, A Discourse at the Society of Theophilanthropists, Paris, circa 1810

This is how we clearly differ from Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

• Was Thomas Jefferson a Deist?
• Thomas Jefferson: Deist or Christian? Debunking Dr James Kennedy
• The Founding Fathers Were Not Christians or Secular Humanists
• Deism in America
• Jefferson on the Morals of Jesus and Deism
• Deism and Reason
• About Thomas Paine
• Thomas Paine on Deism
• Thomas Paine Age Of Reason: Editor's Introduction
• Age of Reason Part I
• Age of Reason Part II
• Letters Concerning the "Age of Reason"
• Reason and Religion by Ethan Allen
• John Locke and a Letter Concerning Toleration
• THE CRUCI-FICTION: NAILING DOWN THE STORY
• Epictetus Deist Sayings
• Thoughts On It All
• Bill of Rights
• ON LIBERTY By JOHN STUART MILL
• Fight Religious Bigotry

• Humanism and Reason Rejected
• What is Humanism? Atheist
• Why UU Humanism Requires Rejecting Our Humanity

Evolution
• Which Creation Story?
• Which Creation Story? Another view
• Evolution debate in schools
• Creationism Teacher Is Told to Stop
• An evolving controversy
• Evolution and the early church, and Islam
• Isaac Asimov Science and the Bible
• Christian Orthodoxy On Creationism
• Christian Right Lobbies To Overturn Second Law Of Thermodynamics
• Ancient Underwater City Found Off India: Archaeologists to Rewrite History
• Explorer Finds Evidence of Life Before Great Flood

English Deism

• English Deism
• At the Origins of English Rationalism
• John Locke on reason and faith.
• Quakers and Deism

  French Deism and the Enlightenment

• Voltaire a History
• Romanticism, Rousseau, and Primitivism
• French Deism
• The Enlightenment
• More on the Enlightenment
• Deism Depicted (Voltaire) by Tracy Van Pelt

Unitarians

• Unitarianism and Deism
• Unitarianism, misc. information
• Unitarianism Spreads in the Church of England

Jefferson

• Thomas Jefferson and Peter Carr
• The Jefferson Bible
• Thomas Jefferson's Wall of Separation
• Thomas Jefferson's Letters on Liberty and Religion

• Eastern Roman Empire and Islam
• Philosophies of Islam, Greece, and the West by Turgut Özal
• Example of Islam and science. Islam shines eight centuries before Darwin.

  Misc.

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Deism
• Founding Fathers Religion Debate and Poll
• Deism by Richard Hooker
• Deism Fastest Growing of Top Twenty Religions
• Maimonides Versus Aristotle and the Jews of Spain, Thirteen Rules
• Original Sin, an Overview
• A Handbook on the History of Modern Science
• The Christian Trinity Debunked

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Updated 6/22/07