Basically no, but some aspire to build a network of local centers for fellowship, community charities, education, and recreational activities; some are members of Unitarian Universalist churches, and some attend traditional churches with their family members, but the Internet has become the ideal source for existing thinkers to identify with Deism and find fellowship.

Elihu Palmer said, "There can be no human authority to which man ought to be amenable for his religious opinions."
Mohandas Gandhi said, "When a man wants to make up with his Maker, he does not consult a third party."

It depends entirely on the individual. Some do express thanks or wishes that forces beyond their control will be favorable, but these practices indicate the Deist leans toward being a Theist.

Thomas Jefferson said, "Religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship."
Soren Kierkegaard said, "Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays."

Each Deist builds his/her own case for believing in God with evidence from a scientific observation of nature (universe) and his/own own reasoning (speculation), so therefore a large reliance on faith, blind faith, or second hand revelation are not employed. Because God's existence cannot be conclusively proven, a few Deists use the term faith for the action that helps them take the final step toward belief.

Albert Einstein said, "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
Robert Heinlein said, "The great trouble with religion - any religion - is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence."
Mohandas Gandhi said, "He who has a living faith in God will not do evil deeds with the name of God on his lips."

Deists' political interests are very diverse, but they usually find support for separation of religion and government (church and state), freedom of speech, and better education.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."
James Madison said, "The civil government ... functions with complete success ... by the total separation of the Church from the State."

Going outdoors and enjoying nature's beauty, the search for truth, knowledge, science, philosophy, good books, music, art, and fellowship.

Albert Schweitzer said, "Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf."
John Herschel said, "Accustomed to trace the operation of general causes, and the exemplification of general laws, in circumstances where the uninformed and unenquiring eye perceives neither novelty nor beauty, [the scientist and natural philosopher] walks in the midst of wonders."

Some think that it is the end of life with only one's children and productive works to live on, while others believe life's energy continues in another form, but disagree on whether or not it involves judgment and heaven.

Epicurus said, "Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?"
Benjamin Franklin said, "Take courage mortal, death cannot banish you from the universe."

When it comes to the ultimate answers about the relation between God, humans, and the universe; no religion, philosophy, or person can be sure they and only they have it just right, regardless of what they claim; there is simply too much that is unknown. Deists, however, with science on their side chipping away at myths that many other religions have believed in; with highly universal and simplified principles to build on, and with a continuous and adaptable search for answers with reason and free inquiry as their guide, believe that they maintain the closest position to the truth.

Mohandas Gandhi said, "Truth never damages a cause that is just."
Albert Schweitzer said, "Because I have confidence in the power of truth and of the spirit, I believe in the future of mankind."
William Ellery Channing said, "The great end in religious instruction, is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own; not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own; not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth; not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs; not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision; not to burden memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought."

Although most Deists would love to see the number of declared Deists soar, the goal of promoting Deism is to get more people thinking for themselves about what their religious and ethical beliefs are rather than just jumping in as blind followers of a traditional organized religion. It is not about proselytizing (converting) anyone. If more people engage in freethinking, and the name Deism is well known, then it gives those thinkers a more accurate label to identify with rather than assuming a mismatched one from a traditional religion. Regardless of what religious label a person identifies with or what political persuasion he/she has, Deists feel that a freethinking population can best ensure the values of freedom, tolerance, scientific education, and progress.

George S. Patton, Jr. said, "If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking."
Henry David Thoreau said, "What other liberty is worth having if we have not freedom and peace in our minds."
Mohandas Gandhi said, "Happiness is when what you say, what you do and what you think ... are in harmony."
Carl Sagan said, "A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge."

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IV. Deism according to Thomas Paine
quotes from the paraphrased version Modern Age of Reason
prepared and paraphrased by Steve Dowell
Contents

1. Deism is an "opinion". Other people have rights to their opinions just like Deists do.

"Please remember that I have always supported the Right of every person to have their own opinion, even if that opinion is different than mine. Anyone who denies another person of this right, makes himself a slave to his own opinion, because he prevents himself from being able to change it."

"Everyone has the same right to their belief as I do. But for man to be truly happy, he must be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in 'belief' or 'unbelief'; it consists of saying you believe something that you really don't believe."

2. Deism is a belief in God based on Nature and Reason.

"It is only in the CREATION that all the ideas and concepts of the word of God can come together. The Creation speaks a universal language that does not depend on any human speech or language. It is an eternal 'original copy' that all men can read. It cannot be faked or counterfeited. It cannot be lost or changed. It cannot be kept secret. It does not depend on man deciding whether to publish it or not. It publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all the nations, and all the worlds. This natural word of God reveals to us all that man needs to know of God."

"Do we want to think of his power? We see it in the vastness of the Creation. Do we want to think of his wisdom? We see it in the unchanging order of the universe. Do we want to see his generosity? We see it in the abundance that fills the earth. Do we want to think of his mercy? We see it in the way he does not withhold abundance even from the ungrateful. In fact, do we want to know what God is? Do not look in the bible (that any man could have written), but look instead to the Creation."

"The strongest weapon against all kinds of errors is Reason. I have never used any other, and hope I never will."

"Only by using reason can man discover God. Take away his reason, and man could not understand anything. "

3. Reason and Nature indicate to us that there is a God. But we cannot know the specific nature and purpose of God.

"Reason can be used to determine that God exists, but it falls far short in discovering all of God's qualities."

"It is evident that an Almighty Power exists, even though it is impossible for us to imagine the nature and manner of its existence."

4. Deists can have hope for an afterlife.

"I believe in only one God; and I have hope for happiness in an afterlife."

"I do not worry about an afterlife. I feel content and secure in the knowledge that the Power that gave me life is able to continue it if he decides to. It could be in any form he chooses; either with or without a body. It seems more likely to me that I will continue to exist in an afterlife, than that I existed in a life before this one. "

"The belief in an afterlife is rational. It is based on facts that we see in the creation."

5. Deists should strive to live good moral lives.

"If man was as fully and strongly impressed with the belief of a God as he ought to be, his moral life would be ruled by the force of that belief. He would stand in awe of God and of himself, and would not do anything that was offensive to either. To give this belief full power, it is necessary that it acts alone. This is Deism."

"Religion is the belief in God, and the practice of moral truth."

"That the moral duty of man is to imitate the moral goodness and generosity of God that we see in the creation that he has given us. As we see the goodness of God to all men, so should all men show goodness to each other."

"As for morality, the knowledge of it exists in every man's conscience."

6. Deists reject 'revealed religions'.

"All the problems in theology and religion have been the result of what we call 'revealed religion'."

"Wild and blasphemous ideas of God are formed because man has wandered away from the unchangeable laws of science, and the right use of reason; and because something called revealed religion was invented."

"It is the duty of every man who respects the character of the Creator, to reject all ideas of revealed religions as a dangerous heresy, and an irreverent fraud. This will reduce many of the miseries of mankind, and will remove the cause behind persecutions. What have we learned from this false thing called 'revealed religion'? Absolutely nothing that is useful to man, and everything that is dishonorable to God."

"The most horrible wickedness and cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have troubled the human race began with this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. Belief in revelation is the greatest dishonor to the character of God that was ever made known since man existed. It destroys morality, and harms the peace and happiness of man. "

7. Miracles should be rejected..

"Miracles should be thought of as a crutch for truth, and should be rejected."

"When a person says he saw a miracle that falls outside the laws of nature, it raises a question in our minds. Which is more likely... that something happened outside the laws of nature, or that a man might tell a lie? We have never in our life seen nature break its own laws. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told. There is at least a million to one odds that the reporter of the miracle told a lie."

"The claim of miracles to prove a religious system is the most inconsistent that religion has; even if it caused someone to believe they were real. In the first place, whenever one has to put on a show (miracles are nothing but a show) to get someone to believe something, it indicates a weakness in the doctrine being preached. In the second place, it degrades God into a carnival showman who does tricks to make the people stare and wonder."

"Any way you look at it, miracles are probably not real or necessary."

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V. Excerpts From Thomas Paine's "Age Of Reason"
quoted from the paraphrased version Modern Age of Reason
prepared and paraphrased by Steve Dowell
Contents

"Please remember that I have always supported the Right of every person to have their own opinion, even if that opinion is different than mine. Anyone who denies another person of this right, makes himself a slave to his own opinion, because he prevents himself from being able to change it."

"The strongest weapon against all kinds of errors is Reason. I have never used any other, and hope I never will."

"I believe in only one God; and I have hope for happiness in an afterlife."

"I believe all men are equal; and I believe that religious duties should consist of being just and merciful to our fellow-creatures, and trying to make them happy."

"I do not believe in the religious creeds of the Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Christians or any other church I can think of. My mind is my own church."

"It appears to me that all churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit."

"Everyone has the same right to their belief as I do. But for man to be truly happy, he must be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in 'belief' or 'unbelief'; it consists of saying you believe something that you really don't believe."

"When a man has gone so far as to corrupt the personal integrity of his mind, so that he will publicly profess things he does not actually believe, he no better than a common criminal. That type of man will become a pastor for the sake of money or power; and it all starts with a lie. Can you think of anything more destructive to good morals than this?"

"No one would deny that God has the power to communicate to man if he wanted to. However, it is important to understand that if God reveals something to one person, and not revealed it to anyone else, then it is a 'revelation' to that person only. When that person tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those people. It is revelation to the first person only, and 'hear-say' to everyone else. Therefore, they are not required to believe it."

"Nothing I say should be thought of as disrespect for the character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and friendly man. The morals he taught and practiced were very beneficial. Similar morals had been taught by Confucius and the Greeks in the past, and by the Quakers since then; as well as by many others down through the ages. However, none of those are any better than what Jesus taught."

"If we want to admire and be grateful for something, there is plenty to admire in the things we see every hour. We see a wonderful creation that was prepared for us the instant we were born; a world freely given to us. Are we the ones who light up the sun, or bring the rain and fill the earth with abundance? Whether we are asleep or awake, the vast universe continues on."

"If Samson ran off with the gate posts of Gaza (and whether he did means nothing to us); or when he visited Delilah; or caught foxes, what has that got to do with Revelation? If they were facts, he could tell them himself; or if he had a secretary, she could write them (if they were worth writing). If they were just stories, then revelation could not make them true. If they were true, then we are no better off for knowing them. When we consider the greatness of God who directs the universe (of which we know so little), we ought to be ashamed at calling these petty little stories the Word of God."

"If we really think about it, we must admit that anything considered 'The Word of God' would have to be something that was completely unchangeable (even by accident). Therefore, the Word of God cannot exist in any written or human language."

"The internal evidence is this... That the doctrine of redemption is based on the idea of a debt-based justice instead of moral justice. If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in prison; another person can come to my rescue and pay the debt for me. But if I have committed a crime, every aspect of the case is changed. Moral Justice cannot punish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty (even if the innocent party makes the offer). It would destroy the very principle that Justice is based on. In that case it would no longer be Justice. It would just be random revenge."

"The fact is that there is no such thing as redemption. It is simply a fable. The truth is that mankind is the same in God's eyes as they have always been. We should take great comfort in this fact. If a man will just believe this, then he will consistently live a more moral life than he would under any other system."

"He [Man] finds fault with everything. His selfishness is never satisfied. He is never thankful. In his prayers, he attempts to tell God how to run the universe. If it's sunny, he prays for rain. If it's raining, he prays for sun. He does the same thing in all his prayers. His prayers are simply an attempt to get God to change his mind and do things differently. It's as if he is saying to God 'I know how to do it better than you'."

"But someone may ask 'Do you mean that we can't have a Word of God, or no revelation?'.    To them I say 'Yes!'.   There is a Word of God. There is a revelation. The word of God is the creation we see everyday.   It is in this word (that man cannot fake or change), that God speaks to all mankind."

"In order to accomplish something, it is important that it be done the right way. This is the difference between the limited abilities of humans, and the unlimited power and wisdom of God. Man often fails due to his lack of power (authority or strength) and wisdom. But it is impossible for the unlimited power and wisdom of God to fail in the same way. God always does things right. Therefore, God would never use human language to communicate his unchanging laws to mankind.   "

"It is only in the CREATION that all the ideas and concepts of the word of God can come together. The Creation speaks a universal language that does not depend on any human speech or language.   It is an eternal 'original copy' that all men can read. It cannot be faked or counterfeited. It cannot be lost or changed. It cannot be kept secret. It does not depend on man deciding whether to publish it or not. It publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all the nations, and all the worlds. This natural word of God reveals to us all that man needs to know of God."

"Do we want to think of his power? We see it in the vastness of the Creation. Do we want to think of his wisdom? We see it in the unchanging order of the universe. Do we want to see his generosity? We see it in the abundance that fills the earth. Do we want to think of his mercy? We see it in the way he does not withhold abundance even from the ungrateful. In fact, do we want to know what God is? Do not look in the bible (that any man could have written), but look instead to the Creation."

"The only idea that man can attach to the name of God is that of a 'first cause', the cause of all things. Even though it is difficult to imagine or believe in a first cause, it is ten times easier than not believing it."

"Using reason, it is clear that everything we see did not make itself. Every man understands that he did not make himself. He understands that his father, or grandfather, or any others of his race could not have made themselves. He knows that trees, plants or animals could not have made themselves. All this leads us to believe in a first cause that has existed for eternity; and that has a nature totally different than anything we know of. This first cause is the power that causes all things to exist. This first cause man calls God."

"Only by using reason can man discover God. Take away his reason, and man could not understand anything. "

"Reason can be used to determine that God exists, but it falls far short in discovering all of God's qualities."

"What we now call 'natural philosophy' includes the study of all sciences, especially that of astronomy. It is this philosophy that studies the works of God, and the power and wisdom of God in his works. It is the true theology. "

"It is false for Christianity to call the sciences a human invention. It is only the application of science that is human. Every science is based on a system of principles that are as fixed and unchanging as those that rule the universe. Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them."

"The Almighty Teacher has displayed the principles of science in the structure of the universe. He invites us to study and imitate it. It's as if he is saying 'I have made an earth for man to live on, and I have made the starry heavens visible, to teach him science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort, and learn from my generosity to all, to be kind to each other'."

"Let us set aside for the moment the outrage to God's moral justice in thinking that he makes the innocent suffer for the guilty. Let us also set aside the loose morals and cheap scam that he changed himself into a man; so that he would have an excuse for not following through with his so-called punishment of Adam. Putting those things aside, we see the Christian faith with its silly account of creation- the strange story of Eve- the snake and the apple- the doubtful idea of a god/man- the physical death of a god- the myth of a family of gods, and the Christian system of arithmetic where three is one, and one is three. All of these things cannot be reconciled with the gift of reason that God has given man. Neither can it be reconciled with the knowledge of the power and wisdom of God that man gains from science, and from studying the structure of God's universe."

"All the problems in theology and religion have been the result of what we call 'revealed religion'."

"We should accept the creation as the only true word of God that has ever, or ever will exist. Everything else called the word of God is false."

"Any person who has given it any thought, must realize that there are two distinct classes of what we call Thoughts. There are those that we produce ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking. But there are also those that just bolt into our minds all by themselves. I have always made it a rule to treat those kind of thoughts with respect, taking care to see if they were worth entertaining. It is from these that I have gained nearly all the knowledge that I have. As for school education, it really only serves to teach you to start learning for yourself. Every educated person is ultimately his own teacher."

"The true Deist only has one God, and his religion consists in meditating on the power, wisdom, and gentleness of God that he sees in his creation. He tries to imitate his God in all things moral, scientific, and practical. "

"Therefore, since there is no part of our earth that is not occupied, why would anyone think that life does not exist anywhere else in the vast universe? There is plenty of room for worlds as large, or larger than ours; each of them millions of miles apart from each other."

"Our ideas concerning the greatness of God, as well as his wisdom and generosity, grow as we think about the vastness of the universe and it's structure. Instead of being alone in space, we can now have the idea of a whole community of worlds. All of them made in such a way as to give knowledge to man. Our earth is filled with abundance. But we forget that much of that abundance is the result of the scientific knowledge provided by the vast structure of the universe."

"So what are we to think of Christianity, and their idea that life only exists on our small world; A world that is only twenty-five thousand miles around; A world that a man walking three miles an hour, for twelve hours a day, could completely walk around in less than two years? What is this one small world compared to the vastness of space and the almighty power of God? "

"Can we seriously believe that God, who has millions of worlds depending on him, would abandon them so he could come to die in our world just because one man and one woman ate an apple? On the other hand, are we to believe that every world in the creation had an Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a redeemer? In this case, the Son of God (or God if you prefer) would have nothing else to do but travel around from world to world, in an endless series of deaths. He would hardly have time to be alive."

"It is by rejecting the natural evidence that we see in God's creation, that so many wild and silly systems of faith and religion have been invented and set up. There may be many systems of religion that are not morally very bad, and might even be good in some respects. But there can be only ONE true religion. The true religion will be the one that is consistent with the evidence seen in Gods work of creation."

"Religion is the belief in God, and the practice of moral truth. Mystery can have no part of it. The belief in a God is far from being a mystery. Of all beliefs, it is the easiest. As we discussed before, we have good reason to believe in God. The practice of moral truth is just an imitation of the moral goodness of God. We simply treat each other as he so kindly treats us. We are unable to serve God in the same way that we can serve those who are truly in need. Therefore, the way to serve God is to contribute to the happiness of our fellow creatures that God has made. "

"Man expects nature to act according to certain natural laws. A miracle is something that does not act according to those laws. But if we don't know all the laws of nature, then we really can't judge whether something is actually a miracle or not. "

"We can be deceived by appearances. Things that are not real can look like they are real. It would be totally inconsistent for God to use miracles. People would be suspicious of the person who claimed to perform them, and the person who claimed to see one would be suspected of lying. The religious doctrine that was supposed to be proved by the miracle would not be taken seriously."

"The claim of miracles to prove a religious system is the most inconsistent that religion has; even if it caused someone to believe they were real. In the first place, whenever one has to put on a show (miracles are nothing but a show) to get someone to believe something, it indicates a weakness in the doctrine being preached. In the second place, it degrades God into a carnival showman who does tricks to make the people stare and wonder. It is the most uncertain kind of evidence that can be used. Belief will not depend on the miracle, but will depend on the credibility of the person who says he saw it. Therefore, even if the thing were true, it would have no better chance of being believed than if it were a lie."

"When a person says he saw a miracle that falls outside the laws of nature, it raises a question in our minds.   Which is more likely... that something happened outside the laws of nature, or that a man might tell a lie?   We have never in our life seen nature break its own laws. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told. There is at least a million to one odds that the reporter of the miracle told a lie."

"Any way you look at it, miracles are probably not real or necessary. As mentioned before, they would not serve any useful purpose even if they were real. It is more difficult to get someone to believe in a miracle, than it is to get someone to accept a good moral principle without a miracle. Moral principles universally speak for themselves. A miracle is a thing that happens at one point in time. Anytime after that, you must put your faith in the person who told you it happened, instead of God. Therefore, we should think of miracles as proof that a religious system is false rather than true. Miracles should be thought of as a crutch for truth, and should be rejected. Falsehood will always try to make use of things that truth would deny. So much for mystery and miracles."

"First- The idea that the word of God exists in print, writing, or in speech is inconsistent for all the reasons we have discussed. These reasons include the lack of a universal language; that language is subject to change; that translations are subject to error; the possibility of it being kept secret; the probability that it was changed or made up, and forced on the world."

"Secondly- That the Creation we see is the real and eternal word of God. It cannot lie to us. It proclaims his power. It demonstrates his wisdom. It shows us his goodness and generosity. "

"Thirdly- That the moral duty of man is to imitate the moral goodness and generosity of God that we see in the creation that he has given us. As we see the goodness of God to all men, so should all men show goodness to each other. Because of this, we know it is morally wrong for men to persecute or have revenge against one another. We also see that it is morally wrong to be cruel to animals. "

"I do not worry about an afterlife. I feel content and secure in the knowledge that the Power that gave me life is able to continue it if he decides to. It could be in any form chooses; either with or without a body. It seems more likely to me that I will continue to exist in an afterlife, than that I existed in a life before this one. "

"One thing is clear. All the nations on earth, and all religions agree that there is a God. The things they disagree on is the extra baggage that goes along with it. If a universal religion ever wins over the world, it will not be by believing anything new. It will be by getting rid of the extra baggage, and believing as man did in the beginning. If Adam really did exist, he was a Deist. In the meantime, let every man have the right to follow the religion and the worship he prefers."

"It has often been said that anything can be proved from the Bible. But before you can say that anything has been proven by the Bible, the Bible itself must be proved to be true. If the Bible is not true, or is in doubt, then it has no authority and cannot be used as proof of anything."

"The belief in an afterlife is rational. It is based on facts that we see in the creation."

"But even though I admit the possibility of revelation, I do not believe that God has ever communicated anything to man by speech, language, visions, appearance, or any other means that our senses are capable of receiving. I believe that the only way he communicates with man is by the universal display of himself through the works of the creation; and our dislike for doing bad things and our tendency to do good."

"The most horrible wickedness and cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have troubled the human race began with this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. Belief in revelation is the greatest dishonor to the character of God that was ever made known since man existed. It destroys morality, and harms the peace and happiness of man. "

"It is the duty of every man who respects the character of the Creator, to reject all ideas of revealed religions as a dangerous heresy, and an irreverent fraud. This will reduce many of the miseries of mankind, and will remove the cause behind persecutions. What have we learned from this false thing called 'revealed religion'? Absolutely nothing that is useful to man, and everything that is dishonorable to God."

"'Love your enemies' is another dogma of false morality."

"If a man is your enemy because of a mistake and prejudice (which is the case in religious opinions, and sometimes in politics), that man is a different kind of enemy than one who has criminal intentions. It is our duty to always try to 'give the benefit of the doubt'. It also contributes to our contentment. But just because someone has criminal intentions towards us, does not mean that we must have more love for him. To say that we can love someone voluntarily, with no reason, is morally and physically impossible. "

"Morality is harmed when it has rules that are impossible to be carried out; or even if they could be carried out, would produce evil results or be a bonus for crime. The maxim of 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' does not include this strange doctrine of loving enemies. No man expects to be loved for his crime, or because he is someone's enemy."

"Doesn't the creation (the universe that we see), preach to us the existence of an Almighty Power that rules and regulates the whole thing? And isn't the evidence that the creation gives to our senses, much stronger than anything that we can read in a book that any imposter could have written and called the word of God? As for morality, the knowledge of it exists in every man's conscience. "

"It is evident that an Almighty Power exists, even though it is impossible for us to imagine the nature and manner of its existence. We cannot imagine how we came to be here ourselves, and yet we know for a fact that we are here. It should be clear to us that, if he pleases, this power that brought us into being, can also make us accountable for the way that we have lived here. It is rational to believe that he will hold us accountable, if for no other reason than that he can. The probability (or even possibility) of being held accountable is all that we ought to know. If we knew it to be a fact, then we would merely be slaves of terror. Our belief would have no merit, and our best actions would have no virtue because they would be forced."

"So then, Deism teaches us all that is necessary or proper to be known, without the possibility of being deceived. The creation is the Bible of the Deist. There he reads, in the handwriting of the Creator himself, the certainty of God's existence and his unchanging power. To the Deist, all other Bibles and Testaments are forgeries. The probability that we might be held accountable in an afterlife will have the same influence as belief, for the man who thinks about it. It is not our belief or disbelief that determines if a fact is true. As free agents, it is proper that we have this freedom to believe or not. But only a fool would live as if there is no God."

"Deism is the only religion that has not been invented, and that has every proof of originally coming from God. It must have been the first, and will probably be the last religion that man believes."

"If man was as fully and strongly impressed with the belief of a God as he ought to be, his moral life would be ruled by the force of that belief. He would stand in awe God and of himself, and would not do anything that was offensive to either. To give this belief full power, it is necessary that it acts alone. This is Deism."

"We can only know God through his works. We cannot understand any of his attributes unless we follow some principle that leads to it. We can only have a confused idea of his power, if we don't have a way to understand something of its immensity. We can't have any idea of his wisdom, unless we know the order and way in which it acts. The principles of science lead to this knowledge. The creator of man is the creator of science, and it is only by using science that man can see God face to face, so to speak."

"The Bible of the creation never runs out of texts. Every part of science, whether it related to the geometry of the universe, or to the systems of animal and vegetable life, or with the properties of dead matter, is a text that is as good for devotion as it is for philosophy. It is as good for gratitude, as it is for improving the human condition."

"Wild and blasphemous ideas of God are formed because man has wandered away from the unchangeable laws of science, and the right use of reason; and because something called revealed religion was invented."

"I am certain that when opinions are free, in either matters of government or religion, that the truth will finally and powerfully prevail."

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VI. What Deism Does For Me
Anonymous
Contents

Some people feel that a freethought philosophy such as Deism offers them nothing, and leaves them in the land of uncertainties, without giving them the equivalent comfort of religion.

What is good about Deism is that it's a truly moderate philosophy. It does not go to any extreme. It doesn't go as far as rejecting any sort of meaning or ultimate reality in the universe, neither does it go as far as claiming with nonnegotiable certainty what God is like, to the point of attributing specific thoughts and revealed texts and descriptions to the Creator, as if only some people are privileged to have such access to the Creator.

The beauty of Deism is in its simplicity. Amidst all the conflicting versions and descriptions of God in world religions, one cannot honestly claim to know much about the nature of the Creator with any reasonable amount of certainty. My God is the mystery that accounts for my existence. That is all I can claim, as a Deist.

Deism gives the best of both worlds. It leaves all the possibilities open for interpreting life and finding your own meaning in it, and fulfilling your role in it, the way you feel is right. And at the same time, you are not restricted by any kind of dogma or blind faith, and you do not have the obligation to blindly trust any source as being divine. Your divine source is your God-given mind.

As opposed to dogmas, Deism truly means that we are all equal. No one is better than anyone else in terms of salvation or damnation. We all have different good potentials with varying degrees based on our own personal behavior and hard work, and none of that is based on what we believe or whether we accept or reject any philosophy or religion.

As opposed to tragic extreme skepticism philosophies, Deism means that there is meaning to life. We know that the universe is designed, and a designed universe by definition was designed for a purpose, for lack of purpose is only the product of randomness. And having that in mind, we know that our lives have a structure, and a role, different for each person. It's our mission to know that role and live it to the fullest.

Deism also means hope. Knowing that the universe and our lives have design and purpose, we have hope that death may not be the end. With courage, one can only accept the Creator's plans for us after death, for no one has been to the "other world". We don't know where we were before birth, and we just might be in for a great surprise at the fulfillment of life!

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VII. Why Deists can't Accept Revealed Religions
by Steve Dowell
Contents

The Positive Deism group is not about bashing the beliefs or faith of others. An underlying principle of this group is that everyone should think for themselves, and everyone has the right and freedom to believe anything they decide (as long as it isn't harmful to others). However, the fact of the matter is that Deists cannot accept Christianity or other revealed religions, and we would be remiss if we didn't make that clear. The obvious question from someone seeking information about Deism would be "Why can't Deists accept any of those religions?".

That's why this page exists. We want to briefly present the basic reasons why we don't believe in revealed religions, and provide a couple of links for those who would like to do some further research. This page is in no way intended to be “bashing”. We are simply presenting our basic reasons.

The core belief of Deism is a belief in God based on reason and nature. Deists believe that God would not reveal himself through man-made, handwritten documents that are prone to forgery, mistakes, absurdities, contradictions and misinterpretation. Instead, Deists believe that Nature is the true, unchangable “Word of God”. Deists believe that it is nature itself that points to a creator, and that anything we can know of God will be discovered there, not in the pages of a book written by man.

Here are a couple of links that aptly illustrate the many difficulties within the Christian Bible that cause Deists to doubt its validity:

• The Skeptics Annotated Bible
  www.SkepticsAnnotatedBible.com
  
  
• Biblical Errancy
  Members.AOL.com/ckBloomFld

The above two links are fairly extensive, and if fully explored, will provide the reader with much to consider.

Deists don't deny that the creator of the universe could reveal himself to someone if he wanted to. However, it would be a revelation to THAT person only. If that person turns around and tells someone else that he just had a revelation from God, it is only hear-say to the second person, and Deists feel that they are under no obligation to believe it.

This is another reason that Deists don't believe in the old 'Holy Books' of revealed religions. To a Deist the stories in these books are simply hear-say. It is someone else who is dead and gone saying that these improbable things occurred, or that God said this or that. A Deist considers these claims to be second hand, and therefore does not feel obliged to believe them.

It should be noted that many religionists acknowledge that the above mentioned difficulties cannot be explained by logic or reason, but must be accepted by 'Faith'. However, Deists reject this sort of blind faith. Faith is not a criteria like reason. If one is to have blind faith, then one can have faith in any religion, like Islam and Hinduism. In the absence of reason, how is one expected to weigh the options and choose?

That is one of the fundamental problems with revelation. We have several conflicting accounts of revelation, with each demanding that we accept it blindly on faith. But none of them provides any reasonable criteria for making the choice. Therefore, the only reasonable choice is to refrain from accepting any of them, and resort to using our own reason. On that basis, Deists cannot accept Christianity, or any other revealed religion.

At this time there is no empirical evidence for the existence of God. Therefore, Deists feel that it's reasonable to accept the existence of God based upon the compelling circumstantial evidence that we see in nature. Deism is not based on faith in something that cannot be empirically proved. It is based on the acceptance of reasonable circumstantial evidence. A Deist's belief in the existence of God can be thought of as a working hypothesis.

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