deism
Watchmaker god belief
Deism is belief in a creator god who does not intervene in the universe after setting it in motion—a divine watchmaker who built the mechanism and let it run.
Popular among Enlightenment thinkers, deism accepts a higher power through reason rather than revelation, rejecting miracles, prophecy, and scripture as sources of religious knowledge.
Many of the American founders held deist views.
French Enlightenment satirist
- JeffersonThird American president
- PaineAnglo surname, political associations
- FranklinSurname or locality
- LockeEnglish empiricist philosopher's surname
Rousseau · Spinoza · Hume · reason · rationalism · empiricism · skepticism · freethought
Timepiece crafter and repairer
- universeComplete system or domain
- mechanismMeans by which something operates
- cosmic orderUniverse's fundamental organizing principle
- natural lawsUnchanging rules of nature
design · Newtonian · determinism · precision · regularity · harmony · self-sustaining · immutable
One who produces something
- first causeInitial triggering factor
- divineOf or from gods
- noninterventionPolicy of staying uninvolved
- monotheismBelief in one god
providence · moral order · universalism · freethought · agnosticism · pantheism · theism · atheism
Supernatural extraordinary events
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
- scriptureSacred religious writings
- prophecyForetelling of future events
- divine interventionGodly action in affairs
supernatural · prayer · answered prayer · holy text · church authority · clergy · sacraments · dogma
Voltaire
French Enlightenment satirist
- JeffersonThird American president
- PaineAnglo surname, political associations
- FranklinSurname or locality
Locke · Rousseau · Spinoza · Hume · reason · rationalism · empiricism · skepticism · freethought · humanism
watchmaker
Timepiece crafter and repairer
- universeComplete system or domain
- mechanismMeans by which something operates
- cosmic orderUniverse's fundamental organizing principle
natural laws · design · Newtonian · determinism · precision · regularity · harmony · self-sustaining · immutable · perpetual motion
creator
One who produces something
- first causeInitial triggering factor
- divineOf or from gods
- noninterventionPolicy of staying uninvolved
monotheism · providence · moral order · universalism · freethought · agnosticism · pantheism · theism · atheism · dogma
miracles
Supernatural extraordinary events
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
- scriptureSacred religious writings
- prophecyForetelling of future events
divine intervention · supernatural · prayer · answered prayer · holy text · church authority · clergy · sacraments · dogma · orthodoxy
- belieffaith, belief, belief systems, creed, dogma
- religionChristianity, Islam, beliefs, Judaism, Hinduism
- religionsChristianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism
- 1700sMozart, Voltaire, colonial period, French Revolution, William III
- beliefsbelief, beliefs, creed, creeds, faith
- ismscapitalism, socialism, communism, anarchism, racism
deismtheism
Belief in deity
interventionism · Pentecostalism · Christianity · Islam · Judaism
deismatheism
Rejection of deities
antitheism · naturalism · nontheism · materialism · physicalism
- sun deityGod embodying the daystar
- Hindu deityGod of Indian religion
- guardian deityProtective divine being
- water deityDivine being governing waters
- patron deityGod protecting specific group
- household deitySpirit protecting a home