Deism emerged during the enlightenment of the eighteenth century, but that does not mean it was the formulation of a completely new set of ideas. Its core assertion, that there is a God, is as ancient as humanity’s consideration of such a notion.
The perennial problem in considering God is getting beyond the anthropomorphic. It seems a human tendency to portray the divine in the image of Man, especially so in the Abrahamic faith traditions.
However, there have been other ways of dealing with the concept. The Stoic school of philosophy was, religiously, a forerunner of Deism. Rather than a God known only through revelation recorded in scripture, Stoics identified what they termed Providence as the essence of creation.
God, for Stoics, consisted of Fire, or active energy, and Logos, reason. God’s presence in the universe could be deduced from Nature operating according to Laws, the result of Cosmic Reason or Providence. Providence ordered all things, even humanity whose freedom existed only within the context of cosmic necessity.
The Fire or active energy aspect of God is the vital principle from which everything in the universe emerges, is shaped, cycled and recycled. God, as vital force, moulds and directs passive matter into all the forms existing at any given moment, reshaping them for the next.
God is not a being outside the universe, drawing up plans and directing operations. Providence is the chain of cause and effect, itself part of creation it regulates and is subject to the immutable law of necessity. Rather than a proper noun, God is a verb, the doing of creation.
“Providence” comes from the Latin “providentia”, meaning foreknowledge and forethought. In this sense the universe is subject to intelligent design, but that intelligence or forethought is immanent within the universe, with design being the result.
This does not imply some celestial blueprint whereby the universe is plotted out in advance. Rather, it is dynamic design responding to the needs of the moment, always in a state of flux.
The question is often posed; if creation follows God’s plan, why are their glaring design faults and imperfections? However, if the universe was perfect it would have to be in stasis, there could be no change to perfection. A dynamic creation requires an element of chaos to be creative.
But, no matter how chaotic the world might appear the universal laws of physics (and biology and chemistry) continue to apply. The cosmos is not a place for arbitrary happenings even if it can be the realm of the unexpected.
There have always been those, like the Epicureans, who espoused the idea of the world being subject to blind fate, just as now evolution is often posited as being purposeless. The Stoics did not deny the existence of a controlling power, just as Deists fully accept evolution, but insisted it was a manifestation of divine will, the power of Providence.
For Stoics, and Deists, everything there is in Nature has a reason. Throughout all creation there is an active “force” or “element” (insert your own word or phrase) that is co-extensive with matter everywhere.
Every manifestation of the individual is but a temporary arrangement that must decay and be subsumed by the whole, but not one single particle is lost. All is to be continually shaped and reshaped according to those laws science has identified.
As Providence acts out of necessity not favour, it follows no one and nothing occupies a divinely privileged position. The Stoic ethic insisted there is no difference between people of various nationalities, or men and women. Providence is truly universal: every individual being a member of “one body partaking in reason.”
When it came to religious practice Stoics did not concoct elaborate ceremonies or rituals. Rather they had a preference for prayer (meditation/contemplation), self-examination and praise. And by praise was meant the appreciation of the wonder of creation. Providence worshipped in the temple of the heart.
Deists likewise do not create liturgies nor build temples. The possibility of God, or Deus, or Providence arises from the experience of individual Deists of Nature. This is not a romantic view, nature “red in tooth and claw” is as apparent to them as a beautiful tranquil sunset.
There is a recognition that seeing in nature the malign as well as the benign arises from a subjective view, while the universe does not operate according to good and evil, but by objective laws.
God is not the fulfiller of human wishes: if Man can be assigned any privilege it is having been granted the ability to play a consciously active role in shaping creation to some extent. This is achieved not through random actions, but intelligent human design.
To deny such a design feature is absent from creation in general is a somewhat arrogant assertion that humans alone somehow transcend an otherwise purposeless and pointless universe.
The concept of Providence is useful as a reminder not to view the divine as being human shaped. God is ineffable because language is necessarily limited to human concepts. Unless Man was the equal of the divine it cannot be otherwise.
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