John Earwood has written a concise description of a typical Deist's approach to deity, humanity and the rest of the universe:
"Deism rejects all of the religious scriptures and dogmas created by fallible humans, as sources of final Truth. Instead, Deists try to avoid unwarranted assumptions, and focus on what is obvious. The world of Nature is where we live and breathe and have our being. But it doesn't seem to be eternal, so someone, or something, must have created it. Since the Creator, whoever She is, does not reveal Herself to us directly, we have no way of knowing what Her intentions for us were. So, as the dominant creatures on earth, we must work together to make our own way in the world. The philosophy of Deism is based on a single, axiomatic premise: that some pre-existing Prime-Mover made us a physical, spherical home, then wound it up, and turned it loose to evolve its own path through space and time. This reasonable inference is not a fixed point of faith, however. It’s just a convenient place to start our philosophical journey, because it leaves us free to deal with reality, without falling into the trap of logical conclusions derived from unwarranted assumptions."
There is no central authority that defines Deist beliefs and practices, as is the case -- for example -- in the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, Deists vary considerably in their beliefs. One core belief shared by essentially all Deists is that God created the universe, established its natural laws, wound it up and then disassociated himself from creation. Some commentators refer to Deists as believing in a God who acts as an absentee landlord.
A few Deists believe that God still intervenes in human affairs on rare occasions. However, most believe that God is wholly transcendent. God does not listen to or answer prayers; God does not intrude in nature by creating miracles.
They believe that the only paths towards knowledge are logic and reasoning.
They respect portions of the holy texts of other religions, like the Torah, Christian Scriptures - New Testament and Qur'an. However, they believe that these books are errant because they were written by humans; they do not believe that any of these books can be considered inerrant, inspired by God or the Word of God.
They believe that miracles do not happen. The world operates by natural and self-sustaining laws of the creator. 1 That is, the world continues to function under the same laws that God initially established.
They do not view God as an entity in human form. God does not have human feelings like love, hate, anxiety, happiness, etc.
Deists hold diverse beliefs concerning the exact nature and attributes of God. Some believe that God has no interest in humans and may not even be aware of our existence.
They believe that one cannot access God through any organized religion, set of beliefs, rituals, sacraments or other practice.
God has not selected a chosen people (e.g. Jews or Christians) to be the recipients of any special revelation or gifts.
Deists generally deny the existence of the Trinity as conceived by Christians. They generally view Jesus as a philosopher, rabbi, teacher and healer, but not as the Son of God. Their beliefs are similar to those of the Jewish Christians -- the initial Christian movement centered in Jerusalem and led by James, the brother of Jesus.
They believe that a practical system of ethics and a moral code can be derived from reason without the need to appeal to religious revelation and church dogma. "Most Deists believe humans are too innately noble to require supernatural coercion and threats of eternal damnation to behave morally." 2
Most Deists view God as having left his creation behind. Thus, prayer makes no sense to them. However, some pray to express their appreciation to God for his works. The latter generally do not ask for special privileges, or try to assess the will of God through prayer, or ask God to perform miracles.
Most Deists do not actively evangelize the public.
Deism symbols:
There is no universally accepted Deism symbol. Deists are an independent lot, so perhaps there should be multiple symbols for their religion instead of a single image.
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
"World View: Deism," at: http://www.iwriteiam.nl/
The United Deist Church of Asheville, at: http://www.geocities.com/
"Scott," "The Symbol of Deism," 2008-NOV-19, at: http://www.amorian.org/
"Symbol/deism," Dynamic Deism Fellowship & community Forum, at: http://www.celestiallands.org/
"Mobius Magic," Mobius Products and Services, at: http://www.mobiusproductsandservices.com/
The symbol of the United Deist Church of Asheville is also a Mobius strip. See: http://www.geocities.com/
"Possibility," The Church of Sunny Deism," at: http://www.freewebs.com/
The Deist Alliance is a cooperative venture among a number of Deist groups. See: http://deistalliance.org/
"The Christian Deism Symbol," at: http://www.christiandeism.com/ the home page itself does not appear to be online.
"One Deist," "Why Phi? Not Wi-Fi," Deism Today BlogSpot, 2008-APR-26, at: ⦁ http://deismtoday.blogspot.com/
John Earwood, "The Elusive Deity of Deism. ‘What in god’s name do you believe?'," 2005-FEB-03, at: http://godvsthebible.com/ this is a PDF file.
Much of the writing here on this page are from various web sites that deal strictly with Deism and is not the work of the author of this site. BJ.
Compiled by Dr. Ben Johnson, Doctor of Divinity
"Deism rejects all of the religious scriptures and dogmas created by fallible humans, as sources of final Truth. Instead, Deists try to avoid unwarranted assumptions, and focus on what is obvious. The world of Nature is where we live and breathe and have our being. But it doesn't seem to be eternal, so someone, or something, must have created it. Since the Creator, whoever She is, does not reveal Herself to us directly, we have no way of knowing what Her intentions for us were. So, as the dominant creatures on earth, we must work together to make our own way in the world. The philosophy of Deism is based on a single, axiomatic premise: that some pre-existing Prime-Mover made us a physical, spherical home, then wound it up, and turned it loose to evolve its own path through space and time. This reasonable inference is not a fixed point of faith, however. It’s just a convenient place to start our philosophical journey, because it leaves us free to deal with reality, without falling into the trap of logical conclusions derived from unwarranted assumptions."
There is no central authority that defines Deist beliefs and practices, as is the case -- for example -- in the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, Deists vary considerably in their beliefs. One core belief shared by essentially all Deists is that God created the universe, established its natural laws, wound it up and then disassociated himself from creation. Some commentators refer to Deists as believing in a God who acts as an absentee landlord.
A few Deists believe that God still intervenes in human affairs on rare occasions. However, most believe that God is wholly transcendent. God does not listen to or answer prayers; God does not intrude in nature by creating miracles.
They believe that the only paths towards knowledge are logic and reasoning.
They respect portions of the holy texts of other religions, like the Torah, Christian Scriptures - New Testament and Qur'an. However, they believe that these books are errant because they were written by humans; they do not believe that any of these books can be considered inerrant, inspired by God or the Word of God.
They believe that miracles do not happen. The world operates by natural and self-sustaining laws of the creator. 1 That is, the world continues to function under the same laws that God initially established.
They do not view God as an entity in human form. God does not have human feelings like love, hate, anxiety, happiness, etc.
Deists hold diverse beliefs concerning the exact nature and attributes of God. Some believe that God has no interest in humans and may not even be aware of our existence.
They believe that one cannot access God through any organized religion, set of beliefs, rituals, sacraments or other practice.
God has not selected a chosen people (e.g. Jews or Christians) to be the recipients of any special revelation or gifts.
Deists generally deny the existence of the Trinity as conceived by Christians. They generally view Jesus as a philosopher, rabbi, teacher and healer, but not as the Son of God. Their beliefs are similar to those of the Jewish Christians -- the initial Christian movement centered in Jerusalem and led by James, the brother of Jesus.
They believe that a practical system of ethics and a moral code can be derived from reason without the need to appeal to religious revelation and church dogma. "Most Deists believe humans are too innately noble to require supernatural coercion and threats of eternal damnation to behave morally." 2
Most Deists view God as having left his creation behind. Thus, prayer makes no sense to them. However, some pray to express their appreciation to God for his works. The latter generally do not ask for special privileges, or try to assess the will of God through prayer, or ask God to perform miracles.
Most Deists do not actively evangelize the public.
Deism symbols:
There is no universally accepted Deism symbol. Deists are an independent lot, so perhaps there should be multiple symbols for their religion instead of a single image.
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
"World View: Deism," at: http://www.iwriteiam.nl/
The United Deist Church of Asheville, at: http://www.geocities.com/
"Scott," "The Symbol of Deism," 2008-NOV-19, at: http://www.amorian.org/
"Symbol/deism," Dynamic Deism Fellowship & community Forum, at: http://www.celestiallands.org/
"Mobius Magic," Mobius Products and Services, at: http://www.mobiusproductsandservices.com/
The symbol of the United Deist Church of Asheville is also a Mobius strip. See: http://www.geocities.com/
"Possibility," The Church of Sunny Deism," at: http://www.freewebs.com/
The Deist Alliance is a cooperative venture among a number of Deist groups. See: http://deistalliance.org/
"The Christian Deism Symbol," at: http://www.christiandeism.com/ the home page itself does not appear to be online.
"One Deist," "Why Phi? Not Wi-Fi," Deism Today BlogSpot, 2008-APR-26, at: ⦁ http://deismtoday.blogspot.com/
John Earwood, "The Elusive Deity of Deism. ‘What in god’s name do you believe?'," 2005-FEB-03, at: http://godvsthebible.com/ this is a PDF file.
Much of the writing here on this page are from various web sites that deal strictly with Deism and is not the work of the author of this site. BJ.
Compiled by Dr. Ben Johnson, Doctor of Divinity
