Deism

"But some, perhaps, will say: Are we to have no Word of God - no revelation? I answer, Yes; there is a Word of God; there is a revelation. The Word of God is the creation we behold and it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man. It is only in the Creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a Word of God can unite. The Creation speaks a universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this Word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God." - Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1793

The Age of Enlightenment (1650 CE – 1800 CE) introduced original modes of thinking about God, religion, and humanity’s spiritual relationship with nature. These illuminating ideas culminated in an ideology known as Deism which was primarily influenced by John Locke (1632 CE – 1704 CE). This paper focuses on events leading up to the formation of Deism and its five fundamental principles. Locke's philosophy advanced theological discourse as a rational form of spiritual expression.