The Evolution of Deism
(Grade 12 History AP Essay)
Analyze the ways in which specific intellectual and scientific developments of the Scientific Revolution contributed to the emergence of the religious outlook known as “deism”.
The religious outlook of deism broke sharply with the prevailing religious dogma of its time by rejecting the notion of God’s intervention in day-to-day affairs. This bold proposition was the result of a series of scientific and intellectual developments, the earliest of which were the scientific inquiries of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei relating to the movement of planetary and terrestrial objects. Their inquiry into the nature of movement set the stage for Isaac Newton’s subsequent discovery of the law of gravity, which generated faith among the rationalists of his time in the existence and authority of natural laws. In this, Newton benefited from the work of René Descartes, who had helped establish the concept of reason as a distinct and reliable human faculty, and who had successfully integrated the mathematical branches of algebra and geometry through his invention of the Cartesian coordinates. These coordinates—along with the principles of calculus which Newton himself had developed—served as indispensable tools in the discovery of Newton’s natural laws. The concept of natural laws established by Newton profoundly challenged the unquestioned assumptions relating to the role of God in the Universe. Emboldened by the discovery of natural laws, rationalists began to reformulate the belief system involving God’s role in human affairs, a process which resulted in the formation of deism. In this way, the emergence of deism as a religious outlook was made possible by specific scientific and intellectual developments which occurred during the Scientific Revolution.
Johannes Kepler painstakingly studied the movement of planetary bodies. He was determined to prove the existence of an underlying geometric harmony which would explain the recurring patterns of the night sky. For Kepler, God was a real and tangible entity, but one which could be understood—indeed, one which desired to be understood—through the study of its manifestations in the natural world. In this way, the study of the natural world was seen by Kepler as the indirect study of God. Thus, somewhat paradoxically, the revolutionary line of questioning and scientific inquiry which led to the uncovering of natural laws—and which contributed, ultimately, to the gradual secularization of religious belief of which deism is a part—was rooted not in a desire to contradict God but in a profound and earnest desire to affirm his existence through the methods of science. The crucial genius of Kepler’s approach is that he saw God as an open question whose answer lay in the thorough exploration of the natural world. Through his unique and uncompromising passion for discovery, Kepler drastically extended the field of scientific inquiry, successfully demonstrating that the scientific study of the natural world is not incompatible with religious belief. In so doing, he granted permission to subsequent generations of scientists to turn their attention toward the unsolved mysteries of the natural world—not as a threat to God, but as a tribute to Him. Through his dedicated study of planetary motion, Kepler came upon the conclusion that planetary orbits are shaped in the form of an ellipse, as opposed to the circular orbits which had been previously postulated. This discovery of the true nature of planetary orbits was consistent with the most accurate data and observations which were available at the time. Kepler’s discovery unlocked the mystery of how planets move in space. But his ideas were made even more influential when combined with the groundbreaking work of Galileo. In essence, Galileo successfully demonstrated that the Earth orbits the sun, as opposed to the sun orbiting the Earth, which was the prevailing notion of the time. Galileo’s law of terrestrial motion—the position that the Earth is not a stationary object but is instead in constant orbit around the sun—stood in direct opposition to the theory of the heliocentric universe, which placed the Earth at the center of the solar system. When taken together, Kepler and Galileo’s discoveries suggested the presence of an underlying mathematical order to the workings of the cosmos. Their efforts showed that the systems of nature, however vast and complex, could be understood and unraveled through the process of scientific inquiry.
The fundamental belief in human rationality which was exemplified in the work of Kepler and Galileo was further developed and acted upon by René Descartes and Isaac Newton. Descartes played a tremendous role in laying the foundation of Newton’s discoveries. Firstly, Descartes established an entirely new framework of philosophy which held that reason is an innate human faculty which can be relied upon to arrive at objective truth. This pivotal change in philosophy did much to promote the belief in rationality and its potential which would become an unspoken truth of future scientific endeavors. Secondly, Descartes unified the mathematical domains of algebra and geometry through his invention of the Cartesian coordinates, which assisted—among other uses—in the visual representation of data. These two factors, when combined, contributed to the formulation of Newton’s natural laws. Other barriers to the realization of Newton’s laws were overcome without the help of outside influences; the mathematical system of calculus, for instance, was invented by Newton himself. In this way, the individual works of Descartes and Newton complimented each-other in such a way as to provide the necessary practical and conceptual requirements for the expression of Newton’s natural laws. The revelation of the law of gravity—and of the concept of natural laws in general—had a profound impact on the scientific community. Newton’s discoveries seemed to prove with undeniable clarity that the universe is governed by laws, and that these laws exist independently from the will and desires of humanity. These new insights challenged the traditional belief in humanity as the centerpiece of God’s creation. Instead, rational observers were forced to contend with a daunting yet inescapable perspective: that of a vast and complex universe, in which God’s attention is—in all mathematical probability—directed elsewhere.
Newton’s discovery of natural laws forced the rationalists of the time to consider alternatives to the traditional, human-centric mentality with which previous generations had approached the question of humanity’s place in the Universe. Essentially, the scientific community—which, through Newton, had uncovered the secrets of gravity and the existence of natural law—was faced with the theological implications of its own discoveries. The prevailing religious notion of God as an all-pervasive force who directly determined the course of all natural processes could not be reconciled with the discovery of natural laws; such notions of an imminent and omnipotent God no longer seemed feasible given the sheer scale and complexity of the cosmos. In light of this challenge to traditional beliefs, subtle modifications to the existing religious outlook began to emerge from within Europe’s rationalist communities. This was the birth of deism as an independent religious outlook. Throughout the process of its formation, elements of religious belief which contrasted with recent scientific discoveries were slowly downplayed, and eventually abandoned. Such was the case with the belief in God’s intervention in day-to-day affairs, which was gradually replaced with a view which acknowledged God as an initial force of creation (as well as a possible source of future destruction) while denying His role in every-day affairs. It followed logically from this modification that rituals of organized religion relating to prayer and the worship of God, or any process of appealing to God’s intervention in worldly matters, should be done away with on the grounds of their irrationality. In essence, deism banished God’s role to the peripheries of human consciousness—to a remote, hypothetical future and a distant, unknowable past—while leaving the present firmly in humanity’s hands. Deism’s reaction is thus a direct response to the intellectual and scientific discoveries which spurred its creation: to the early deists, the importance of God was directly related to the extent to which the phenomena He was meant to explain could otherwise be accounted for by science. In other words, deism’s assertion that God is not actively involved in the daily workings of the universe results from the fact that recent scientific advances—particularly those relating to natural laws—had begun to explain aspects of the natural world for which God had previously been the only available explanation. Conversely, deism’s position that God governs the remote past and the distant future is less an expression of belief in God than it is a reflection of the fact that those two areas—the distant ends of the linear time-scale—were as of yet largely unexplored by the scientists of the time. In this way, the development of deism stemmed from the recent scientific and intellectual discoveries of the time, as the authority of God came to be challenged by the growing authority of science and rationality.
The religious outlook of deism developed as a logical reaction to the recent scientific and intellectual breakthroughs of the Scientific Revolution. Deism differed from more traditional belief systems in that it denied the involvement of God in everyday affairs, instead believing that His influence extends only to the remote past and distant future. This new approach to God was triggered most directly by Isaac Newton’s discovery of the law of gravity, and by the broader awareness of natural laws which it catalyzed. Newton’s success was aided in part by his own work—such as his invention of the mathematical system of calculus—as well as by the work of René Descartes, who contributed to the Scientific Revolution through his innovations in philosophy and mathematics. Both Newton and Descartes were deeply interested in the concept of applying scientific principles towards unsolved problems of the natural world. In this regard, they benefited greatly from the legacies of Kepler and Galileo, whose work relating to the laws of planetary and terrestrial motion helped catalyze a wave of scientific inquiry and exploration. In this way, the concepts and beliefs articulated in deism are rooted in a longstanding tradition of scientific enquiry, which—though stemming from the ferment of the Scientific Revolution—continue to drive the curiosity and innovation of our species.
