Deism

When one hears the name “Ethan Allen”, several images may come to mind. Perhaps the most common, although a little disappointing, is of course the furniture company. Ask a Vermonter, or a scholar of American history, and they might respond with “forts, patriots, green mountain boys” - all allusions to this man’s illustrious past. A past wrought with gunpowder and bloodshed, and a lifetime spent questioning just about every semblance of authority that Allen encountered. Perhaps what is most…

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine both were visionaries in their day, understanding that the world around us was more than just dirt and rock but that there was a divine infinite universe in front of us to explore and all you had to do was look up. While both of these men could be found laying the bricks for the age of enlightenment in the colonies and paving the way for a new country, free of British rule, they were also vastly different in individual temperament. Benjamin Franklin and…

Wollstonecraft asks what can save us from atheism when she questions how the God we worship is not a devil if “one being was created with vicious inclinations, that [was] positively bad” (Wollstonecraft 160). This brings up enlightenment value of Deism, which accepts that a God exists but not intertwining that belief with a specific religion. Similarly, “The Lamb” highlighted religion by connecting it with the human and natural worlds using the lamb as an analogy to the world God…

Calvinism perspectives of religion were still prevalent, but the rise of Deism emphasized God as a powerful clockmaker who left the world after its creation. Many new ideas were introduced such as how leadership should be gained by meritocracy instead of birthrights. Other ideas from Enlightenment thinkers emphasized scientific…

Early Life in England At first glance the town of Thetford, located 60 miles northeast of London, might not look like much, but it is actually the birthplace of one of the most influential people in the American Revolution: Thomas Paine. On January 29, 1737 a baby boy was born to Joseph and Frances Paine. At the time no one knew what the boy would grow up to be, and no one would know for another 36 years! But the first 36 years of his life were marked by failure and tragedy, until he moved to…

began to fight back against the politicians who had come to power. The general distrust of religion and hatred towards politicians combined to dawn a massive movement of enlightenment as well as a whole new set of social issues and beliefs, such as deism or humanism. Many people began to preach reason and scientific explanation over religion and spirituality. This is summed up well by a quote by Voltaire, ”judge a man by his questions rather than his answers”(Voltaire). This quote really seems…

The United States of America was born in and of the Enlightenment. The American Revolution, our national documents, and our system of government were products of Enlightenment philosophy. No other nation`s history can be identified in the same way as much with the Enlightenment as ours. The Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, was a revolution in thinking that began in Europe in the 17th century. After centuries of political and religious oppression, philosophers were beginning to advance theories…

The Influence that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has had on my Worldview and my Response to that Influence. Before this course began, I had never heard of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Now that we have studied it in depth, I believe that it is a spiritually unhealthy habit, yet we all have it to some extent. I have always seen God as kind of a Therapist in the weird sense that he will always listen to me gripe and will never complain. The morality part is clearly addressed in the Bible…

Rights Over Religion: Human Rights in “Advise on the Choice of a Mistress” For some people, commitments are difficult to sustain in a marriage. In this generation, it is not abnormal to find families where the parents are divorced, detaching themselves from the vows they once made to their significant other. Many people find it difficult to commit themselves to one person over a long amount of time, possibly being unable to avoid affairs with other people along the way. During the literary era…

In the reading McCloakey talks about proofs. He believes that three proofs move ordinary theist their theism. The first proof that he speaks about is cosmological, which is the chain that every created thing is being caused right now. There is a slight argument over the creation, who is God, having a cause in the beginning. It is believed that if the proofs fail from an observational perspective; then the proof is proven false. How can something that does not need to be given existence…