How was the Enlightenment influenced by deism?

Answer 1

AnswerAfter centuries during which the very thoughts and beliefs of Christians had been under the control of the clergy, the Enlightenment thinkers began to look for new answers. To go from absolute, unthinking belief in theism to agnosticism was probably too big a step for many, but deism allowed some to pigeonhole God, if he exists, as a creator who took no further interest in his creation and never performed miracles or intervened in human affairs. Other deists were not quite so reductionist, arguing with Newton that this creator must continue to interfere occasionally in the universe, if only to keep the stars in their places, since not all aspects of the physical universe were capable of self-regulation. One way or another, orthodox Christian beliefs appeared to be countered successfully by the notions of deism.

Theists felt obliged to refute the ideas of the Enlightenment and, in 1713, the Anglican clergyman Samuel Clarke identified four strands of contemporary deist thought which he felt needed urgently to be refuted. Catholics argued that there existed no positive scientific evidence to discount reports of miracles in the past, whereas they claimed a great body of historical writing to attest to their reality, thus seeking to place the onus on those who wished to disprove rather than to prove the supernatural. The philosophers retaliated by pointing to similar claims of the miraculous which were made by non-Catholic heretics and infidels.

Another Enlightenment-period defence against deism was fideism, which accepted that Christianity could not be proved rationally. Fideism declared that God's truths lay forever beyond the limits of human reason, and we should simply accept those truths as laid down by the clergy.