Deism according to Thomas Paine
(quotes taken from 'Modern Age of Reason')
1. Deism is an "opinion". Other people have rights to their opinions just like Deists do.
"Please remember that I have always supported the Right of every person to have their own opinion, even if that opinion is different than mine. Anyone who denies another person of this right, makes himself a slave to his own opinion, because he prevents himself from being able to change it."
"Everyone has the same right to their belief as I do. But for man to be truly happy, he must be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in 'belief' or 'unbelief'; it consists of saying you believe something that you really don't believe."
2. Deism is a belief in God based on Nature and Reason.
"It is only in the CREATION that all the ideas and concepts of the word of God can come together. The Creation speaks a universal language that does not depend on any human speech or language. It is an eternal 'original copy' that all men can read. It cannot be faked or counterfeited. It cannot be lost or changed. It cannot be kept secret. It does not depend on man deciding whether to publish it or not. It publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all the nations, and all the worlds. This natural word of God reveals to us all that man needs to know of God."
"Do we want to think of his power? We see it in the vastness of the Creation. Do we want to think of his wisdom? We see it in the unchanging order of the universe. Do we want to see his generosity? We see it in the abundance that fills the earth. Do we want to think of his mercy? We see it in the way he does not withhold abundance even from the ungrateful. In fact, do we want to know what God is? Do not look in the bible (that any man could have written), but look instead to the Creation."
"The strongest weapon against all kinds of errors is Reason. I have never used any other, and hope I never will."
"Only by using reason can man discover God. Take away his reason, and man could not understand anything. "
3. Reason and Nature indicate to us that there is a God. But we cannot know the specific nature and purpose of God.
"Reason can be used to determine that God exists, but it falls far short in discovering all of God's qualities."
"It is evident that an Almighty Power exists, even though it is impossible for us to imagine the nature and manner of its existence."
4. Deists can have hope for an afterlife.
"I believe in only one God; and I have hope for happiness in an afterlife."
"I do not worry about an afterlife. I feel content and secure in the knowledge that the Power that gave me life is able to continue it if he decides to. It could be in any form he chooses; either with or without a body. It seems more likely to me that I will continue to exist in an afterlife, than that I existed in a life before this one. "
"The belief in an afterlife is rational. It is based on facts that we see in the creation."
5. Deists should strive to live good moral lives.
"If man was as fully and strongly impressed with the belief of a God as he ought to be, his moral life would be ruled by the force of that belief. He would stand in awe of God and of himself, and would not do anything that was offensive to either. To give this belief full power, it is necessary that it acts alone. This is Deism."
"Religion is the belief in God, and the practice of moral truth."
"That the moral duty of man is to imitate the moral goodness and generosity of God that we see in the creation that he has given us. As we see the goodness of God to all men, so should all men show goodness to each other."
"As for morality, the knowledge of it exists in every man's conscience."
6. Deists reject 'revealed religions'.
"All the problems in theology and religion have been the result of what we call 'revealed religion'."
"Wild and blasphemous ideas of God are formed because man has wandered away from the unchangeable laws of science, and the right use of reason; and because something called revealed religion was invented."
"It is the duty of every man who respects the character of the Creator, to reject all ideas of revealed religions as a dangerous heresy, and an irreverent fraud. This will reduce many of the miseries of mankind, and will remove the cause behind persecutions. What have we learned from this false thing called 'revealed religion'? Absolutely nothing that is useful to man, and everything that is dishonorable to God."
"The most horrible wickedness and cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have troubled the human race began with this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. Belief in revelation is the greatest dishonor to the character of God that was ever made known since man existed. It destroys morality, and harms the peace and happiness of man. "
7. Miracles should be rejected..
"Miracles should be thought of as a crutch for truth, and should be rejected."
"When a person says he saw a miracle that falls outside the laws of nature, it raises a question in our minds. Which is more likely... that something happened outside the laws of nature, or that a man might tell a lie? We have never in our life seen nature break its own laws. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told. There is at least a million to one odds that the reporter of the miracle told a lie."
"The claim of miracles to prove a religious system is the most inconsistent that religion has; even if it caused someone to believe they were real. In the first place, whenever one has to put on a show (miracles are nothing but a show) to get someone to believe something, it indicates a weakness in the doctrine being preached. In the second place, it degrades God into a carnival showman who does tricks to make the people stare and wonder."
"Any way you look at it, miracles are probably not real or necessary."