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deism
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deism

Belief in a supreme being. The term usually refers to a movement in the 17th and 18th centuries characterized by the belief in a rational ‘religion of nature’ as opposed to the orthodox beliefs of Christianity. Deists believed that God is the source of natural law but does not intervene directly in the affairs of the world, and that the only religious duty of humanity is to be virtuous.

Deism emerged in England in the writings of Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648). John Toland (1670–1722) and Matthew Tindal (1657–1733) were among its major exponents. In France, the writer Voltaire was the most prominent advocate of deism. In the US, many of the founding fathers, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, were essentially deists. See also theism.

Deists believed in the light of nature and reason as a sufficient guide in doctrine and practice. This had much in common with later German rationalism.



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According to Holmes, America's founding fathers were largely creatures of the Enlightenment, Deists who believed the Creator had endowed all people with a freedom of conscience and religion on which no government should trample, and who had good reason to fear an intolerant religion at the helm of the ship of state.
Separation anxiety: how intertwined should religion and politics be ... by McCormick, Patrick / U.S. Catholic
But as Barry Alan Shain has so brilliantly shown, to focus the study of the American founding on a coterie of intellectuals who were at best deists ignores the beliefs and values of the ordinary Americans who actually fought the Revolution and ratified the founding documents.
The secret of Straussianism by Sherlock, Richard / Modern Age
New Light evangelicals such as Isaac Bachus and John Leland joined forces with Deists and skeptics such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson to fight for a complete separation of church and state.
The framers and the faithful: how modern evangelicals are ignoring ... by Waldman, Steven / Washington Monthly
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