What is Deism?
by Michael J. Vlach, Ph.D. Deism is the belief that an intelligent being created the world, but this being is no longer involved with the world or intervenes in the affairs of people. According to Deism, a being that could be called “God” created the world and set it in motion. But after creating the world and giving it the natural laws it needed to function, this God left the world allowing it to function on its own. This God, who should not be understood as the personal God of Christianity, is like an absentee landlord or a watchmaker who no longer has any interest in the watch he created. The founder of Deism was Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648). Deism flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and reached its zenith around the time of the American Revolution. This view was popular among European thinkers such as Voltaire as well as several founders of the United States including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. In its early days, Deism was not as skeptical ab
What do deists believe?” Answer: Deism is essentially the view that God exists, but that He is not directly involved in the world. Deism pictures God as the great clockmaker who created the clock, wound it up, and let it go. A deist believes that God exists and created the world, but does not interfere with His creation. Deists deny the Trinity, the inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ, miracles, and any supernatural act of redemption or salvation. Deism pictures God as ambivalent, uncaring, and uninvolved. Thomas Jefferson was a famous deist, referring often in his writings to Providence. Deism is most definitely not biblical. The Bible is filled with accounts of the miraculous. The Bible is, in fact, entirely an account of God interfering in His creation. Daniel 4:34b-35 records, His dominion is an eternal dominion; His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the
