IAmJoshBrown.com

The Problems of Deism & It’s Possibilities: An Overview

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about deism lately. For the non-theology nerds out there . . . deism is a

religious philosophy and movement that derives the existence and nature of God from reason and personal experience, in contrast to theism (with religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which relies on revelation in sacred scriptures or the testimony of other people. - Or so says the Wiki gods.

Deism is highly influenced by the historical melting pot of enlightenment, rationalism, natural theology, scientific method, Platonic dualism, and the Age of Reason. Throughout the 17th century all of these new forces and ideas were deconstructing the previously held worldviews of monotheism, spirituality, and faith. And in it’s place reconstructing what we now call modernity or the modern world. The Reformation and the birth of the Protestant movements were made possible by this critique of the abuses and dogma of Catholicism. In this vacuum of mistrust towards religion and faith, science became king.

The only things that were true were the things that could be explained and proven scientifically. The Earth moved from being sacred and begun to be seen as a source for raw materials that could be made and sold at will. In many ways this time period was the precursor to the Industrial Revolution, colonialism, atheism, agnosticism, and the list could go and on.

Anyway . . . in this important transitional time in the history of the world, people began thinking of the spiritual and God in different ways than they had before. Again, it was a shift towards the scientific and rational.

In that vein some theologians (trying to articulate Christ to the culture) and some scientists (trying to de-spiritualize God) began working with a new metaphor of understanding God.

This new metaphor was that of a clock. Deism envisions God as a kind of clock-maker who set the universe in motion but then let it run on its own. So God is a clock-maker (adjectives: rational, mechanic calculating, detached, scientific, industrial) and creation (Earth, animals, & humanity) is the clock (adjectives: orderly, timely, explainable, mechanistic, dependable, functional, reasonable). The clock-maker creates a clock. Winds it up. And let’s it go. Once it’s wound up, the clock-maker never has to mess with it again. It runs down on it’s own. It is not personal. It’s just an orderly mechanic type of thing.

That’s deism in an overview. Tomorrow I talk about the apparent and not-so apparent problems with this view of God. And later I talk about how a modified version of it explains a few things for me, although it’s still a poor metaphor.

On a complete side note, the “founding fathers” of our country that conservative evangelicals always romanticize into these religious patriots and pilgrims were all (for the most part) deists. And the only people who ever disagree with this historical fact are the conservative evangelicals. Men like Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Adams, etc.

And to prove that I’ve always been a heretical, (un)patriot) here is an excerpt from a rather lengthy post 2 years ago after a 4th of July church service.

We talk about how our forefathers were seeking freedom. And wanted religious freedom. It’s important to note that they were seeking freedom FROM things not freedom FOR things.

They were not seeking freedom FOR the oppressed or marginalized, i.e. women, slaves, men who didn’t own property. They were seeking freedom FROM Britain, FOR themselves (white, wealthy landowners) and themselves only. Enough of the over romanticizing that they were seeking freedom for those who didn’t have voices. They were simply seeking freedom from their big brother who kept beating up on them. They were looking out for themselves, the wealthy, white, landowners. They were paying money and taxes to Britain that they didn’t want to pay. It had nothing do with God or moral purposes as history claims. It was not even for social purposes. It was for their own economic purposes.

They were probably nice guys. I’m not saying they were evil. Or there seeking freedom was wrong. Or that I wouldn’t have done the same thing. But I am saying that they are not martyrs. They were not Christians fighting for God’s rights, God’s freedoms for all. They were using God to justify their own economic oppression and used God as a tool to oppose it.

© 2007 IAmJoshBrown.