for john mureith

DEISM: The religion of those believing in a God who rules the world by

established laws but not believing in the divinity of Christ or the

inspiration of the Bible; "natural" religion, based on reason and a study

of nature, as opposed to "revealed" religion. The scientific movement

which grew out of the new knowledge of the world and the universe

following upon the discoveries and theories of Columbus, Copernicus,

Galileo, Francis Bacon, and later the members of the Royal Society,

furthered the development of a rationalistic point of view which more and

more tended to rely upon reason instead of upon revelation in the

consideration of humanity's relation to God and the Universe. The fact

that the conceptions of the physical world found in the Old Testament

seemed inconsistent with the newer knowledge shook the faith of many in

the doctrine of the special inspiration of the Bible. DEISM was a

product of this general point of view.

1. The Bible is not the inspired word of God; it is good so far

as it reflects "natural" religion and bad so far as it

contains "additions" made by superstitious or designing

persons.

2. Certain Christian theological doctrines are the product of

superstition or the invention of priests and must be

rejected; e.g., the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the

Trinity, and theory of the atonement for sins.

3. God is perfect, is the creator and governor of the Universe,

and works not capriciously but through unchangeable laws

(hence "miracles" are to be rejected as impossible).

4. Human beings are free agents, whose minds work as they

themselves choose; even God cannot control human thought.

5. Since human beings are rational creatures, like God, they are

capable of understanding the laws of the universe; and as God

is perfect, so can humanity become perfect through a study of

nature, which shows design and must therefore be an

expression of God.

6. Practical religion for the individual consists in achieving

virtue through the rational guidance of conduct (as

exemplified in the scheme for developing the moral virtues

recorded by Franklin in his Autobiography).

(Thrall, Hibbard, Holman. A Handbook to Literature.)