Despite his leanings toward Deism, Alexander has retained a respect for the Catholic Church, believing it to embody a great deal of accumulated human truth within its rituals.

Deism is derived from deus, the Latin word for god.

Hermann Samuel Reimarus ( December 22, 1694, Hamburg – March 1, 1768, Hamburg ), was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from a study of nature and our own internal reality, thus eliminating the need for religions based on revelation.

Haskalah differed from Deism of the European Enlightenment by seeking modernised philosophical and critical revision within Jewish belief, and lifestyle acceptable for emancipation rights.

* Deism – The general doctrine that no faith is necessary for justified belief in God's existence and / or the doctrine that God does not intervene in earthly affairs ( contrasts with Fideism ).

Attempts to reconcile science and religion resulted in a rejection of prophecy, miracle and revealed religion, often in preference for Deism.

Paine was highly controversial ; when Jefferson was attacked for his Deism in the 1800 election, Republican politicians took pains to distance their candidate from Paine.

Various connecting threads among these varied uprisings include a concern for the " Rights of Man " and freedom of the individual ; an idea ( often predicated on John Locke or Jean-Jacques Rousseau ) of popular sovereignty ; belief in a " social contract ", which in turn was often codified in written constitutions ; a certain complex of religious convictions often associated with Deism or Voltairean agnosticism, and characterized by veneration of reason ; abhorrence of feudalism and often of monarchy itself.

Professor Martha Nussbaum at the University of Chicago Law school stated, "' Ceremonial Deism ' is an odd name for a ritual affirmation that a Deist would be very reluctant to endorse, since Deists think of God as a rational causal principle but not as a personal judge and father.

Instead, Deism holds that religious beliefs must be founded on human reason and observed features of the natural world, and that these sources reveal the existence of a supreme being as creator.

Deism is the belief in the existence of one supreme being or God while denying revealed religion, basing belief on the light of nature and reason accepting the design found throughout the known universe as pointing to a Designer or God.

While being held by the French he was taken to France and there he became aware of Deism.

He was accused by the Spanish inquisition ( 1478-1834 ) of being a Deist and of teaching his students about Deism.

Deism became more prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment — especially in Britain, France, Germany and America — among intellectuals raised as Christians who believed in one God, but found they could not believe in supernatural events such as miracles, the inerrancy of scriptures, or the Trinity.

From these effort, many other Deist sites and discussion groups have appeared on the Internet such as Positive Deism, Deist Info, Modern Deism and many others.

Deism typically rejects supernatural events ( such as prophecies, miracles, and divine revelations ) prominent in organized religion.

In Deism, it is believed that there is a God, but presumed that there are no divinely caused revelations or miracles at all, leaving reports of such to have natural explanations.

The most relevant among these last are Yiguandao ( and other sects within the Xiantiandao category ), Deism, Tiendery-Tientism, Yaochidao and Zailiism ; among the very new ones the most notable are the various Qigong-inspired groups, such as Falun Gong, Zhong Gong, Yuanji Gong and Wang Gong, and Christian-inspired Taiping-style sects such as Zhushenism, Linglingism, Fuhuodao, Mentuhui and Lightning from the East.

For example, in Deism and Pandeism, the Creator has no need to intervene in our Universe at all, and so exhibits no such behavior.

The ultimate view of a non-interventionist God is depicted in Deism, where God is a philosophical abstraction, far removed from the traditional Hebrew " God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ".

An alternative religion was Deism, the philosophical belief in a deity based on reason, rather than religious revelation or dogma.

Philosophical theism has parallels with the 18th century philosophical view called Deism.

They also hoped their organization would be of interest to non-Christians who embrace generic or philosophical theism and Deism.

Lord Herbert of Cherbury ( 1583 – 1648 ) is generally considered the " father of English Deism ," and his book De Veritate ( 1624 ) the first major statement of deism.

1996 saw the first Web site dedicated to deism with the WUD site Deism. com.

At first he attempted to combine both, publicly espousing Deism while simultaneously attending his local Baptist church.

Deism is belief in a God or first cause based on reason, rather than on faith or revelation.

Deism holds that God does not intervene with the functioning of the natural world in any way, allowing it to run according to the laws of nature that he configured when he created all things.

Deism does not ascribe any specific qualities to a deity beyond non-intervention.

Deism was a religious philosophy in common currency in colonial times, and some Founding Fathers ( most notably Thomas Paine, who was an explicit proponent of it, and Benjamin Franklin, who spoke of it in his Autobiography ) are identified more or less with this system.

* Fideism – The doctrine that faith is irrational, that God's existence transcends logic, and that all knowledge of God is on the basis of faith ( contrasts with Deism ).

Finally, Blackmore attempted to answer Deism again with Natural Theology, or, Moral Duties Consider'd apart from Positive in 1728.

* A phrase, associated with Deism, that is used in the United States Declaration of Independence: "... the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them ..."

Polydeism ( from Greek πολύς ( ' poly ' ), meaning ' many ', and Latin deus meaning God ) is a polytheistic form of Deism encompassing the belief that the universe was the collective creation of multiple Gods, each of whom created a piece of the universe and then ceased to interact with the universe.

He went on daily walks with his close friend, the older student John Herbert who he dubbed " Cherbury " after Herbert of Cherbury, the father of English Deism.

Deism is a theological position concerning the relationship between " the Creator " and the natural world.

Deism stood between the narrow dogmatism of the period and skepticism.

Deism is related to naturalism because it credits the formation of life and the universe to a higher power, using only natural processes.

Deism may also include a spiritual element, involving experiences of God and nature.

Deism flourished in England between 1690 and 1740, at which time Matthew Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation ( 1730 ), also called " The Deist's Bible ", gained much attention.

... As Deism waned in England, it waxed in France and the German states.

An argument in favor of Kant as deist is Alan Wood's " Kant's Deism ," in P. Rossi and M. Wreen ( eds.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography, " Some books against Deism fell into my hands ; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lectures.

Deism is generally considered to have declined as an influential school of thought by around 1800.

The Modern Deism web site includes one list of the unofficial tenets of modern deism.

It split from Deism. com to promote more traditional and historical Deist beliefs and history.

Another Alliance member, Unified Deism, was created as a social network that is all-inclusive to various forms of deism.