Deism

As deism [ de'ɪsmʊs ] ( belief in God, but often taken to Latin deus "god" with gr δεῖ, dei, " it is necessary " in connection ) refers to the belief in a God of understanding reasons in contrast to God's understanding of the revealed religions with scriptures. However, the ideas of this God are very different. In a narrower sense deists are the ones that get through the Divine with the origin of the universe in conjunction, another intervention of God but deny that. In the broader sense of Deism is viewed as free-thinking faith flow in the Age of Enlightenment.

The term Deism originated in the mid-17th century in England.

Scope and significance

The commonality with theism is that both assume a God who had completed the creation. The difference is in God's additional response: While deism assumes that God does not intervene further in the world, taking part in the theism that God can intervene at any time as a causal cause in the world. For the deists, however, there are no miracles ( an event that contradicts the laws of nature ), and ultimately no disclosure. An influence participating God such as the book of Job also would be contrary to the free will of man. While Deism posits a complete separation from God and the world, taking part in the pantheism that God and the world eventually form a unit.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz spoke of God as a watchmaker who set the perfect watch movement made ​​by him in transition, which has since been further runs by itself. John Locke, one of the main proponents of empiricism, justified his natural belief in God, Christian connotations, with perception and thought. Voltaire took a tolerant rationalist belief in God, while Jean Jacques Rousseau 's religious sentiments articulated in the face of an incomprehensible God.

History

Generally

In addition to religious and philosophical considerations since ancient Deism has as an important source of the antitrinitarianism or Unitarianism, which was widespread in the 17th century as Socinianism in Europe. Siegfried Wollgast described the Socinianism as " direct progenitor " of deism.

England

In England, where since 1664 the followers of Socinianism were threatened with death, the movement of the Freethinker developed, and at the beginning of the second half of the 17th century, the term came to deism. The main representatives of deism such as John Locke or his pupil John Toland, it went oppose the belief in revelation all about, "natural" laws of reason.

Isaac Newton explained the forces of nature by the intervention of God (spiritual forces). In contrast, Leibniz argued that Newton consider God as a poor watchmaker who had not made ​​his work completed. This was an expression of classical deism. The old watchmaker argument, which saw an expression of divine planning in creation is exacerbated. God had given the world only at the beginning of a plan. Each subsequent intervention, in turn, is interpreted as a lack of the original creation.

For Lord Henry Bolingbroke Christianity and the Church were merely a means to serve the state to keep the instincts of the people in check. Only in so far as Christianity with the principles of reason is to agree truth is inherent to him. The church, however, faith is nothing but the work of men, will only maintain the grounds of national welfare and taught by well-paid pastors superstitious folk deceptive as a divine commandment.

Matthew Tindal published in 1730 his work Christianity as old as Creation; or, the Gospel a republication of the religion of nature, which became very popular and soon was regarded as the Bible of Deism. Among all the religions he alone held a liberated from Revelation Christianity, the deistic original religion, for truth. The Bible is the title of this natural religion, which is to be interpreted sensibly. Miracles and prophecies, which are described in the Bible, just as he leaned down like any anthropomorphic conception of God. Revelation he called a swindle that had been foisted on the world by priests. The religion should be based on moral principles and adopt a tolerant attitude towards dissenters, except atheists who want to destroy religion. 1741, the text was translated into German and then won some influence in Protestant enlightened circles of the German countries.

Also a friend of Locke, Anthony Collins, advocated a deistic belief in God and was therefore - as Bolingbroke and Tindal - opposed and persecuted, and had to leave the UK several times times and found refuge in the Netherlands.

The formulated Irish philosopher and theologian George Berkeley, following on Locke and René Descartes, in contrast to Newton and Leibniz ' watchmaker image idealistic deistic theses: Nature and life have their origin in God, and exist by God. Man develops through his perceptions ideas that brings the spirit of God in him. Even David Hume's philosophy of religion works The Natural History of Religion ( The Natural History of Religion ) in 1757 and the posthumously published Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion have deistic tendencies.

In some countries, there were deists in the Masonic movement, such as Voltaire in France, Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of the United States, as well as Thomas Jefferson, author of the founding declaration and 3rd President of the United States, who advocated the separation of religion and state. In his book Age of Reason ( Age of Reason ) founded Paine his Unitarian faith in only one God, and united him with the hope of " a happy state after this life. " According to Paine is the true religion is to act justly, compassion show and to make people feel good. Both in England and in France, he came into conflict with the state powers and was exposed to persecution, so he finally returned to the United States.

Germany

Deism was in the enlightened absolutism of large parts of Germany less widespread than in his country of origin. In addition to Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Illuminati order, Hermann Samuel Reimarus be mentioned. He was a pioneer of biblical criticism, held in public but back. Published by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1774-1778 fragments of his writings ( fragments of unnamed ) led to the so-called fragments dispute, the main polemical confrontation between the Enlightenment with their positions more or less deistic, coupled with detailed radical biblical criticism on the one hand and the Protestant orthodoxy on the other hand. The main protagonists were Lessing and Johann Melchior Goeze.

Others

In the 20th century, Albert Einstein's view of the universe with deistic or pandeistischen conceptions of God has been associated. His famous statement, " The theory says a lot, but the secret of the Old brings us no closer. Anyway, I am convinced that the does not play dice "is often shortened as" God does not play dice " played.

From the insinuation that he represented a theistic image of God, he distanced himself: "It is, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which has been systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and that this had never denied, but expressed it clearly. If there is something in me which can be described as religious, then it is my tremendous admiration for the structure of this world, as far as she explores the science. "