Deism During The Enlightenment

Without using reason in our everyday lives, society will collapse and turn into nothing but chaos. During the Enlightenment, a time when reason was beginning to be applied to the people’s thoughts, there were many great thinkers, but there were three in particular that attempted to change society’s unreasonable thinking. Voltaire, John Locke, and Mary Wollstonecraft all believed in freedom of choice; however, they believed in different branches of freedom of choice such as religion, government, and women’s education.

The Age of Enlightenment, a movement during the 17th and 18th century started from the Europeans, later moving into American colonies. The point of this movement was for the society to reform on a new base such as emphasizing reason and individualism over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Beccaria, Locke, and Voltaire helped launched this project amongst Europeans. John Locke, for example, criticized absolute monarchy and favored self-government. Voltaire also believed that people should be able to speak their minds without the fear they may be punished. Through these philosophy influence, this eventually leads to European rulers ruling with a sense of equality, democratic governance, and abolition.

For years, Christian Theism was the most prominent worldview. Christian Theist believed that God was the creator of all, and that he had laid out a plan for humanity. In the Seventeenth Century, as theist started to question their worldviews, a new view began to rise. Deism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is, “Movement or system of thought advocating natural religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe.”(2017)

What is atheism? Why would someone be an atheist? Why do people fear and dislike atheism? Simply stated, atheism is the lack of belief in a god or gods. Granted, atheists are each individuals and undoubtedly each of them prescribe [to] many different philosophies on life, politics and morality as do Christians. However, though atheists may choose to gather collectively for whatever purpose, unlike Christianity, atheism is not a belief system. An individual who identifies himself as an atheist is merely stating that he does not believe in [the existence of] god or gods. Atheism, as indicated by its name, is the opposite of theism which is belief in at least one god; to include polytheism (belief in many or more than one god) and monotheism

Popular deism – belief in a being, force, or intelligence. Cold deism God is simply abstract force bringing world into existence. Warm deism God is clearly personal and even friendly.

Critics propose that just because something cannot be confirmed, does not mean that it is not acknowledged or that there is no reason in trusting it. Rene Descartes wanted certain knowledge to be absolute, although this is not the only option, and others would claim that justified knowledge is adequate. Other philosophers claim skepticism is imperious because a skeptic cannot know that skepticism is absolute.

Christianity and Deism have the same worldview in believing that there is a God but differ in their system of faith. As defined by Philip G. Ryken in his pocket book “Christian Worldview, A Student’s Guide”, worldview is the structure of human’s understanding to make sense of the world (Ryken, 2013). Though it may be hard to understand others’ worldview, it is helpful to gain such knowledge and understanding.

Life before the enlightenment consisted of church, absolute monarchies and divines, religious warfare, and an imprisonment for life, if a person sinned. The church and state were also combined. But during the 18th century, a change in thinking happened. This change is known as the Enlightenment. Many great men expounded upon the idea of “Enlightenment.” Some of the men are Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Montesquieu, John Locke, and François-Marie Arouet, known more as Voltaire.

When one stops to ponder or reflect on the Catholic religion it is easy to see how strong their faith is. In my opinion they have to be the ones who truly know the meaning of blind faith. In life one goes through trials and tribulations, and it is up to the individual to cope with their problems how they see fit. However, throughout the eternities this community of believers has undergone many speculations; nevertheless their beliefs continue to reign.

In the wake of the Scientific Revolution, the world was plunged into the Age of Reason, otherwise known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a time period that stretched from approximately 1685 to 1815 and focused on human reason. By the time the enlightenment came to a close, it had birthed countless discoveries and revolutions in science, philosophy, and government. Influential figures of this time period included John Locke, Rene Descartes, and Thomas Jefferson, to name a few. With the Enlightenment’s priority on reason and science, it is not surprising that many Enlightenment thinkers had a difficult time accepting religions like Christianity. Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine are excellent examples of the relationship that

During this time people turned to religious answers for phenomena of the natural world, so this made it hard for many to accept so easily. Isaac Newton, famous physicist and mathematician, was a Deist as well. Newton’s discovery of the Theory of Gravity brought about a whole new understanding of the world. It was Newton who introduced the idea of the mechanical universe, an idea which explained natural phenomena with science or most importantly mathematics. Deists rejected organized religion and believed that reason was the basic characteristic of man. This is perfectly exemplified in a passage from Thomas Paine: “I do not believe in the creed professed by…any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church…” (Perry, Pg. 64) One of Descartes famous quotes in the time of the Enlightenment were “I think, therefore I am.” (Perry, Pg.49) Although Deism was a radical movement from previous ideologies, it did not completely ignore religious works or teachings. Thomas Jefferson found many excellent lessons and examples of moral behavior within the gospels. Deism was a departure from vague philosophical study that dealt with irrelevant ideas to rational study about things grounded to this world and reality.

Americans in the Enlightenment period strongly connected themselves with the classical age in terms of how they approached their art. The Enlightenment period lasted for about 150 years, from approximately 1700 -1850. Throughout this time period many artists took inspiration from the classical age which occurred in ancient Greece and Rome hundreds of years before. We can see examples of this in buildings like The White house and Monticello in America, and Kedleston Hall in England. These three buildings, though located in very different parts of the world, all have a number of aestheticly similar attributes.

The Enlightenment period was an extremely impactful revolution which caused changes in societies around the world. It began in 1651, people across the country took a stand against their unfair rights. In order to have a peaceful society, everyone must be treated with equality which can only occur if there is a fair government system in place. If people have to fight and kill to have their natural rights granted, something has to be done about it. The enlightenment period encouraged the people to share their ideas when before they felt they had no say. When the people come together to fight for something they believe in many good and bad outcomes can take place. This time period led to many changes that have drastic effects on history. As people joined multiple documents were created showing the impact of this time period. A couple of these influential documents was the English Bill of Rights, U.S constitution, and the Haitian Constitution.

People of this time wanted to find out the truth they didn’t want to live in a world of past secrets and lies. These people did not care what they were going to hear as long as it was the truth and nothing but the truth. A man named Immanuel Kant, a philosopher during this time, encouraged people to be open minded, to not hide from the truth, and be able to think for oneself. He and others used the power of reason in their life. Sort of like how I said power of reason the Enlightenment was also called the Age of Reasoning. Since these people were getting into science and reasoning there had been many new tools and ways of believing. Deist of this time believed in “natural laws”. Thus meaning that God put us on earth planned everything out, but no longer interacted with us. Think of it this way, God put us on earth with a plan and set a clock that goes with us, but he can never touch it again. The Enlightenment started to leave the colonist speculating their traditional religions they are used to this starts what is known as the Great Awakening.

evil shouldn’t exist. But because evil does exist in this world, God is not all-good and