New Deism

Why is Deism the fastest growing religion in America
and in many other countries around the world?

Because Deism Makes Sense !

These EIGHTEEN PREMISES
sum up the core beliefs of New Deism

1) Truth is absolute.
2) Human apprehension of truth is limited and tentative.
3) Humans apprehend truth via common sense.
4) Common sense is the consensus of human faculties.
5) God exists.
6) God is transcendent and immanent.
7) God is good.
8) Existence is intelligently designed by God.
9) Existence consists of perpetual transformation within constant form.
10) Existence embodies more than matter and forces.
11) Existence has purpose.
12) Existence has meaning.
13) Humans are moral, spiritual beings.
14) Humans have free will.
15) Good being manifests as good doing.
16) The Good consists of unselfish benefit.
17) In relationships and in society, ideal benefit is reciprocal.
18) Good humans transcend throughout this life and on into an afterlife.

(from Natural God: Deism in the Age of Intelligent Design: A Deconstruction of Atheism and Religious Fundamentalism by Beth Houston (New Deism Press, 2012) : Included in Exit Religion, Enter God (2019)

Contrary to the claims of some, Deism is not agnosticism, atheism, pantheism, or "Christian Deism." But many disillusioned agnostics, atheists, pantheists, and followers of organized religions have found their way to the sensible perspective of Deism.

Deism is sometimes referred to as "naturalism." While it's true that Deism honors Nature as its great revelatory text, the naturalism of Deism is the antithesis of the naturalism of neo-Darwinian materialist atheism. Deists believe that Nature is Creation created by the Creator.

On the other hand, Intelligent Design for the Deist is the antithesis of Genesism or any other religious creationism. Deist creationism is determined and defined by the latest science verified by reason coupled with commonsense philosophy.

Some people associate Deism with the Watchmaker or Clockmaker God who wound up the universe and left it to tick on its own. The metaphor, coined by Robert Boyle in the seventeenth century, was made famous a century later by William Paley, who simply pointed out that if you found a watch out on a heath, you would assume--you would know--that it had been designed by an intelligent mind, presumably human. Deists assume--know--that exquisitely intricate, awesomely integrated fine-tuned existence necessitates a transcendent creating Mind.

Deists reject the idea of divine intervention that violates the God-established structural laws of Nature. But according to New Deism, intervention isn't necessarily impossible; theoretically, it could occur in the wiggle rooms where chance and choice can take place. As discussed in Houston's Natural God:

Personal preference, or individual free will, is an ancient understanding confirmed by recent scientific conclusions of non-determinism based on several key concepts centered on randomness--most recently chaos theory, following Godel's incompleteness, Heisenberg's uncertainty, Turing's uncomputablilty, Shannon and Weaver's entropy as disorder, Chaitin's randomness and chaos, and the information theory revolution.

Because Creation is an ongoing process of creation of newness, it's fair to conclude that God could be in a sense immanent as well as transcendent. New Deism doesn't rule out the possibility of some kind of encounter with God or experience of God's Presence.

If these concepts ring true to you, you might count yourself among the growing worldwide congregation of Deists.

Perhaps you already are a Deist!

* If you're disillusioned with organized religion but have faith in the existence of God,
you might be a Deist.

* If your beliefs derive from common sense, not from special revelation of organized religion,
you might be a Deist.

* If you consider religious myths and superstitions to be literary representations, not literal facts,
you might be a Deist.

* If your ideal religion would be the Golden Mean between atheism and fundamentalism,
you might be a Deist.

* If you think the Creator reveals truth democratically to all via Creation apprehended via common sense,
not to a chosen elite via special revelation apprehended via indoctrination,
you might be a Deist.

* If you hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
you might be a Deist
(as were many of America's most prominent Founders).

* If you are spiritually inclined and are seeking a religion grounded in provable truth,
you are very likely a Deist!

Natural God: Deism in the Age of Intelligent Design

Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone. --Thomas Jefferson

Please visit New Deism Press

Golden Spiral by Amanda Moore. Spiral 2 by Marianna Armata.