MDMD(5): Deism

[Mike Weaver]

>This is what I think about deism: it is a polite word for atheism. And
>the last thing Bonk wanted to hear.
>Michel.

 From an article on Tom Paine:

Whilst in Paris, Paine wrote THE AGE OF REASON.  This is an attack on 
revealed religion exposing the myths, dogmas and absurdities of the Bible. 
In its place he substituted the religion of humanity and international 
brotherhood. He was immediately called an atheist and strongly condemned 
although in fact he was a deist...

In A Discourse delivered To The Society of Theophilanthropists in Paris in 
1797, Paine made a frontal attack on Atheism. A reprint in 1798 was 
published by J.Johnson under the title, Atheism Refuted Or a Discourse To 
Prove The Existence of A God. There is a copy in the Brunel collection and 
one in the Library of Congress.


The distinction I'd make is that atheism is monist and deism dualist, as in 
much non-specific new age spirituality: there may not be a Christian style 
god but there is a Design which can be discovered.

For all the claims of paranoia in Pynchon being religious, I can't get away 
from the thought that it's the other way round: religion as another 
paranoid system/perception, another method of immobilising existence.

TTFN
Mike
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