Natural God: Deism in the Age of Intelligent Design

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A Revolution in Religion, a Revolution in You. Here's how restrictions apply. Review Positioning contemporary Deism as the Golden Mean between atheist-materialist Darwinism and religious fundamentalism, Beth Houston convincingly argues that exquisitely designed Creation categorically necessitates a transcending Intelligent Designer that is immanently engaged in the perpetual process of creating novelty sustained within the secure margins of natural laws.

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Natural God : Deism in the Age of Intelligent Design by Beth Houston (2012, Paperback)

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I read this most excellent book twice. The first time rendered so many ideas and so many truly profound thoughts, that, as soon as I finished it, I went to the first page and began again. The second read was as brilliant as the first. So glad she wrote this book and even gladder that I bought it. One person found this helpful. This book critiques some major institutions of our society, religion and science being the main ones.

The author's primary thesis is that "scientific fundamentalism" is just as detrimental to society as "religious fundamentalism". I agree totally, as I'm sure others do. I am fairly surprised that someone who's major in college was English is the one putting this idea down on paper. My opinion and this is me talking now is that this idea is one of the most important ideas facing our society today. Science is obviously a very good thing. There is no denying that science at times can be and is used to manipulate and control what people think and believe just as much as hard-core, fundamentalist religion is.

The ultimate message of this book is that you simply cannot ever stop examining every single idea that is thrown at you: YOU have to make sure that what people say actually makes sense and agrees with reality. Just because some "scientist" makes a claim, does not mean you can just rest assured that whatever is said is true, because a scientist is making the claim. Scientists have been wrong many, many times before, and there is absolutely no guarantee that what a scientist says is going to be correct.

When scientists make claims that are technically impossible to prove, by definition, you had better watch out. The main scientific targets of this book are Darwinian evolution and some of the nonsensical claims of modern physics. Most of the arguments are very convincing in my opinion, and if you are the type of person who likes to see the claims of the self-appointed "authorities" of society critiqued, then this book is for you.

You may be surprised to learn that the "proof" that evolution is "true" is not the same sort of proof that Isaac Newton used in his work. It is most definitely NOT a slam dunk. There is no direct evidence of ANY of the major claims of evolution. Most of the claims are, in fact, impossible to observe in any way unless someone invents a time machine. So why is there so much hype about how they are so sure that it is correct? Good question, and this book will show you that they are not sure at all. There are several very good books that debunk Darwinian evolution, and this book is not exhaustive on the subject, but the critique of Darwinian evolution presented here is a very good one: I learned some very interesting things about Darwin I had never read before that alone were worth the price of the book.

The critique of what some physicists have published is not as long, nor as central to the book, but it is still very worthwhile and a very good read. Personally, I wonder if the physicists are just trying to see how outlandish they can get before someone calls them on the BS. And that's what this book does: But if all you can do is spout nonsense, without any justification, then it is BS, pure and simple.

There is a fair amount of New Testament criticism in this book as well. People not familiar with New Testament criticism will be surprised to learn that the foundation of Christianity is, well, let's be honest: So why "believe" it??? Again, the main idea of this book is that "fundamentalism," of any stripe, is very detrimental to all of human society.

This is me talking again: This is a critical issue people. There is a quote from the famous Voltaire that is not in the book, but sums it up nicely this a a rough paraphrase from memory: This is a worthwhile book, and very well written. It is one of those books that some people would like to read just because it is so well written. Obviously, a main focus of this book is Deism. Many of the arguments presented in this book in support of Deism are good arguments and well worth reading as long as you like reading about ideas, the way you would read a book about philosophy well, that applies to the whole book.

Many faiths or religions, clearly, exist or once existed in various countries and ages, and certainly there is not one of them that the lawgivers have not pronounced to be as it were divinely ordained, so that the Wayfarer finds one in Europe, another in Africa, and in Asia, still another in the very Indies. Europe had been plagued by sectarian conflicts and religious wars since the beginning of the Reformation. The 17th century saw a remarkable advance in scientific knowledge, the scientific revolution. The work of Copernicus , Kepler , and Galileo set aside the old notion that the earth was the center of the universe.

These discoveries posed a serious challenge to biblical and religious authorities, Galileo's condemnation for heresy being an example. In consequence the Bible came to be seen as authoritative on matters of faith and morals but no longer authoritative or meant to be on science.

Isaac Newton 's — mathematical explanation of universal gravitation explained the behavior both of objects here on earth and of objects in the heavens in a way that promoted a worldview in which the natural universe is controlled by laws of nature. This, in turn, suggested a theology in which God created the universe, set it in motion controlled by natural law and retired from the scene.

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The new awareness of the explanatory power of universal natural law also produced a growing skepticism about such religious staples as miracles violations of natural law and about religious books that reported them. An important precursor to deism was the work of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury d. In Herbert's account of one incident, he prayed "I am not satisfied enough whether I shall publish this Book, De Veritate; if it be for Thy glory, I beseech Thee give me some Sign from Heaven, if not, I shall suppress it" and recounts that the response was "a loud tho' yet gentle Noise came from the Heavens for it was like nothing on Earth I had the Sign I demanded".

Like his contemporary Descartes , Herbert searched for the foundations of knowledge. In fact, the first two thirds of De Veritate are devoted to an exposition of Herbert's theory of knowledge. Herbert distinguished truths obtained through experience, and through reasoning about experience, from innate truths and from revealed truths. Innate truths are imprinted on our minds, and the evidence that they are so imprinted is that they are universally accepted.

In the realm of religion, Herbert believed that there were five common notions. The following lengthy quote from Herbert can give the flavor of his writing and demonstrate the sense of the importance that Herbert attributed to innate Common Notions, which can help in understanding the effect of Locke's attack on innate ideas on Herbert's philosophy:. No general agreement exists concerning the Gods, but there is universal recognition of God.

Every religion in the past has acknowledged, every religion in the future will acknowledge, some sovereign deity among the Gods. Accordingly that which is everywhere accepted as the supreme manifestation of deity, by whatever name it may be called, I term God. While there is no general agreement concerning the worship of Gods, sacred beings, saints, and angels, yet the Common Notion or Universal Consent tells us that adoration ought to be reserved for the one God.

Hence divine religion— and no race, however savage, has existed without some expression of it— is found established among all nations. The connection of Virtue with Piety, defined in this work as the right conformation of the faculties, is and always has been held to be, the most important part of religious practice. There is no general agreement concerning rites, ceremonies, traditions There is no general agreement concerning the various rites or mysteries which the priests have devised for the expiation of sin General agreement among religions, the nature of divine goodness, and above all conscience, tell us that our crimes may be washed away by true penitence, and that we can be restored to new union with God.

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I do not wish to consider here whether any other more appropriate means exists by which the divine justice may be appeased, since I have undertaken in this work only to rely on truths which are not open to dispute but are derived from the evidence of immediate perception and admitted by the whole world. The rewards that are eternal have been variously placed in heaven, in the stars, in the Elysian fields Punishment has been thought to lie in metempsychosis , in hell, But all religion, law, philosophy, and That reward and punishment exist is, then, a Common Notion, though there is the greatest difference of opinion as to their nature, quality, extent, and mode.

It follows from these considerations that the dogmas which recognize a sovereign Deity, enjoin us to worship Him, command us to live a holy life, lead us to repent our sins, and warn us of future recompense or punishment, proceed from God and are inscribed within us in the form of Common Notions. Revealed truth exists; and it would be unjust to ignore it. But its nature is quite distinct from the truth [based on Common Notions] We must, then, proceed with great care in discerning what actually is revealed According to Gay, Herbert had relatively few followers, and it was not until the s that Herbert found a true successor in Charles Blount — Blount made one special contribution to the deist debate: Other Deists were to follow his lead.

The publication of John Locke 's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , but dated marks a major turning point in the history of deism. Since Herbert's De Veritate , innate ideas had been the foundation of deist epistemology. Locke's famous attack on innate ideas in the first book of the Essay effectively destroyed that foundation and replaced it with a theory of knowledge based on experience. Innatist deism was replaced by empiricist deism.

Locke himself was not a deist. He believed in both miracles and revelation, and he regarded miracles as the main proof of revelation. After Locke, constructive deism could no longer appeal to innate ideas for justification of its basic tenets such as the existence of God. Instead, under the influence of Locke and Newton, deists turned to natural theology and to arguments based on experience and nature: Peter Gay places the zenith of deism "from the end of the s, when the vehement response to John Toland 's Christianity not Mysterious started the deist debate, to the end of the s when the tepid response to Conyers Middleton 's Free Inquiry signalled its close.

Among the Deists, only Anthony Collins — could claim much philosophical competence; only Conyers Middleton — was a really serious scholar. The best known Deists, notably John Toland — and Matthew Tindal — , were talented publicists, clear without being deep, forceful but not subtle. Others, like Thomas Chubb — , were self-educated freethinkers; a few, like Thomas Woolston — , were close to madness. Although he did not think of himself as a deist, he shared so many attitudes with deists that Gay calls him "a Deist in fact, if not in name".

Especially noteworthy is Matthew Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation , which "became, very soon after its publication, the focal center of the deist controversy.

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Because almost every argument, quotation, and issue raised for decades can be found here, the work is often termed 'the deist's Bible'. This effectively widened the gap between traditional Christians and what he called "Christian Deists", since this new foundation required that "revealed" truth be validated through human reason. The writings of David Hume are sometimes credited with causing or contributing to the decline of deism.

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English deism, however, was already in decline before Hume's works on religion , were published. Furthermore, some writers maintain that Hume's writings on religion were not very influential at the time that they were published. Nevertheless, modern scholars find it interesting to study the implications of his thoughts for deism. In the Natural History of Religion , Hume contends that polytheism, not monotheism, was "the first and most ancient religion of mankind".

In addition, contends Hume, the psychological basis of religion is not reason, but fear of the unknown. The primary religion of mankind arises chiefly from an anxious fear of future events; and what ideas will naturally be entertained of invisible, unknown powers, while men lie under dismal apprehensions of any kind, may easily be conceived. Every image of vengeance, severity, cruelty, and malice must occur, and must augment the ghastliness and horror which oppresses the amazed religionist.

And no idea of perverse wickedness can be framed, which those terrified devotees do not readily, without scruple, apply to their deity. Graham Waring saw it; [19]. The clear reasonableness of natural religion disappeared before a semi-historical look at what can be known about uncivilized man— "a barbarous, necessitous animal," as Hume termed him. Natural religion, if by that term one means the actual religious beliefs and practices of uncivilized peoples, was seen to be a fabric of superstitions. Primitive man was no unspoiled philosopher, clearly seeing the truth of one God.

And the history of religion was not, as the deists had implied, retrograde; the widespread phenomenon of superstition was caused less by priestly malice than by man's unreason as he confronted his experience. Experts dispute whether Hume was a deist, an atheist , or something else.

Hume himself was uncomfortable with the terms deist and atheist , and Hume scholar Paul Russell has argued that the best and safest term for Hume's views is irreligion. English deism, in the words of Peter Gay, "travelled well. As Deism waned in England, it waxed in France and the German states. France had its own tradition of religious skepticism and natural theology in the works of Montaigne , Bayle , and Montesquieu.

The most famous of the French deists was Voltaire , who acquired a taste for Newtonian science, and reinforcement of deistic inclinations, during a two-year visit to England starting in French deists also included Maximilien Robespierre and Rousseau. For a short period of time during the French Revolution the Cult of the Supreme Being was the state religion of France.

Kant 's identification with deism is controversial. In the United States, Enlightenment philosophy which itself was heavily inspired by deist ideals played a major role in creating the principle of religious freedom, expressed in Thomas Jefferson's letters and included in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Their political speeches show distinct deistic influence. Other notable Founding Fathers may have been more directly deist. Unlike the many deist tracts aimed at an educated elite, Paine's treatise explicitly appealed to ordinary people, using direct language familiar to the laboring classes.

How widespread deism was among ordinary people in the United States is a matter of continued debate. A major contributor was Elihu Palmer — , who wrote the "Bible" of American deism in his Principles of Nature and attempted to organize deism by forming the "Deistical Society of New York" and other deistic societies from Maine to Georgia.

In the United States there is controversy over whether the Founding Fathers were Christians, deists, or something in between. Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others, particularly Collins and Ralph; but each of them having afterwards wrong'd me greatly without the least compunction, and recollecting Keith's conduct towards me who was another freethinker and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect that this doctrine, tho' it might be true, was not very useful.

Franklin also wrote that, "The Deity sometimes interferes by his particular Providence, and sets aside the Events which would otherwise have been produc'd in the Course of Nature, or by the Free Agency of Man. For his part, Thomas Jefferson is perhaps one of the Founding Fathers with the most outspoken of deist tendencies, though he is not known to have called himself a deist, generally referring to himself as a Unitarian.

In particular, his treatment of the Biblical gospels, which he titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth , but subsequently became more commonly known as the Jefferson Bible , exhibits a strong deist tendency of stripping away all supernatural and dogmatic references from the Christ story. However, Frazer, following the lead of Sydney Ahlstrom , characterizes Jefferson as not a Deist but a "theistic rationalist" , because Jefferson believed in God's continuing activity in human affairs.

Deism is generally considered to have declined as an influential school of thought by around , but has since experienced an extraordinary resurgence as its simple science- and reason-based philosophy has been rediscovered in the internet Age. The American Religious Identification Survey ARIS , which involved 50, participants, reported that the number of participants in the survey identifying themselves as deists grew at the rate of percent between and If this were generalized to the US population as a whole, it would make deism the fastest-growing religious classification in the US for that period, with the reported total of 49, self-identified adherents representing about 0.

As of the time of the ARIS survey, 12 percent 38 million of the American population were classified as deists. After the writings of Woolston and Tindal, English deism went into slow decline. By the s, nearly all the arguments in behalf of Deism It had all been said before, and better. It is probably more accurate, however, to say that deism evolved into, and contributed to, other religious movements.

The term deist became rarely used, but deist beliefs, ideas, and influences remained. They can be seen in 19th-century liberal British theology and in the rise of Unitarianism, which adopted many of deism's beliefs and ideas. Although this decline has entirely reversed during the early 21st century, some commentators have suggested a variety of reasons for the former decline of "classical" deism or perhaps actually simply a decline in the use of the term "Deism", rather than in the more universality Deist philosophy.

Contemporary deism attempts to integrate classical deism with modern philosophy and the current state of scientific knowledge. This attempt has produced a wide variety of personal beliefs under the broad classification of belief of "deism. Classical deism held that a human's relationship with God was impersonal: God created the world and set it in motion but does not actively intervene in individual human affairs but rather through divine providence. What this means is that God will give humanity such things as reason and compassion but this applies to all and not to individual intervention.

Some modern deists [ who? Also, this means that it makes no sense to state that God intervenes or does not intervene, as that is a human characteristic that God does not contain. Modern deists believe that they must continue what the classical deists started and continue to use modern human knowledge to come to understand God, which in turn is why a human-like God that can lead to numerous contradictions and inconsistencies is no longer believed in and has been replaced with a much more abstract conception. A modern definition [69] has been created and provided by the World Union of Deists WUD that provides a modern understanding of deism:.

Deism is the recognition of a universal creative force greater than that demonstrated by mankind, supported by personal observation of laws and designs in nature and the universe, perpetuated and validated by the innate ability of human reason coupled with the rejection of claims made by individuals and organized religions of having received special divine revelation. Because deism asserts the existence of God without accepting claims of divine revelation, it appeals to people from both ends of the religious spectrum.

Antony Flew , for example, was a convert from atheism, and Raymond Fontaine was a Roman Catholic priest for over 20 years before converting. As well as using the internet for spreading the deist message, the WUD is also conducting a direct mail campaign. In the first web site dedicated to deism, deism. It split from deism. The Positive Deism movement began in Historically and to the present day, deists have been very critical of the revealed religions as well as trying to be constructive. Positive Deists focus their efforts solely on being constructive and avoid criticism of other faiths.

In Chuck Clendenen, one of its adherents, published a book entitled "Deist: The aim of the book was to educate those who believed similarly, but did not know the words deism and deist, that there is a name for their belief. In , the World Union of Deists published a book on deism, Deism: This book focuses on what deism has to offer both individuals and society. In , the WUD published its third book, God Gave Us Reason, Not Religion , which describes the difference between God and religion, and promotes innate reason as God's greatest gift to humanity, other than life itself. The Life of Thomas Paine.

The film includes important coverage of Thomas Paine's profound Deism and his work to promote Deism. In , the Church of Deism not affiliated with the World Union of Deists was formed in an effort to extend the legal rights and privileges of more traditional religions to Deists while maintaining an absence of established dogma and ritual. Modern deists hold a wide range of views on the nature of God and God's relationship to the world.

The common area of agreement is the desire to use reason, experience, and nature as the basis of belief. There are a number of subcategories of modern deism, including monodeism this being the default standard concept of deism , polydeism , pandeism , spiritual deism, process deism , Christian deism , scientific deism , and humanistic deism.

Some deists see design in nature and purpose in the universe and in their lives Prime Designer. Others see God and the universe in a co-creative process Prime Motivator. Some deists view God in classical terms and see God as observing humanity but not directly intervening in our lives Prime Observer , while others see God as a subtle and persuasive spirit who created the world, but then stepped back to observe Prime Mover.

Pandeism combines elements of deism with elements of pantheism , the belief that the universe is identical to God. Pandeism holds that God was a conscious and sentient force or entity that designed and created the universe, which operates by mechanisms set forth in the creation. God thus became an unconscious and nonresponsive being by becoming the universe.

Other than this distinction and the possibility that the universe will one day return to the state of being God , pandeistic beliefs are deistic. Plinius, den man, wo nicht Spinozisten, doch einen Pandeisten nennen konnte, ist Natur oder Gott kein von der Welt getrenntes oder abgesondertes Wesen.

Here Gottfried says that Pliny is not Spinozist , but 'could be called a pandeist' whose Nature or God 'is not a being separate from the world. Its nature is the whole creation in concrete form, and thus it seems to be designed with its divinity. Man stelle es also den Denkern frei, ob sie Theisten, Pan-theisten, Atheisten, Deisten und warum nicht auch Pandeisten? So we should let these thinkers decide themselves whether they are theists, pan-theists, atheists, deists and why not even pandeists? In the s, theologian Charles Hartshorne scrupulously examined and rejected both deism and pandeism as well as pantheism in favor of a conception of God whose characteristics included "absolute perfection in some respects, relative perfection in all others" or "AR", writing that this theory "is able consistently to embrace all that is positive in either deism or pandeism", concluding that "panentheistic doctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations".

Many classical deists were critical of some types of prayer. For example, in Christianity as Old as the Creation , Matthew Tindal argues against praying for miracles, but advocates prayer as both a human duty and a human need. Charles Taylor , in his book A Secular Age , showed the historical role of deism, leading to what he calls an exclusive humanism. This humanism invokes a moral order, whose ontic commitment is wholly intra-human, with no reference to transcendence. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For other uses, see Deism disambiguation. Not to be confused with theism. This article contains too many or too-lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by presenting facts as a neutrally-worded summary with appropriate citations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. October Learn how and when to remove this template message. An Anthology , pp. The Concise Oxford Dictionary.

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