Deism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Immortality of the soul==== Different Deists had different beliefs about the immortality of the soul, about the existence of Hell and damnation to punish the wicked, and the existence of Heaven to reward the virtuous. Anthony Collins,<ref> {{cite book |last= Orr |title=(see above) }} p.134.</ref> [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke|Bolingbroke]], [[Thomas Chubb]], and [[Peter Annet]] were materialists and either denied or doubted the immortality of the soul.<ref> {{cite book |last= Orr |title=(see above) }} p.78.</ref> [[Benjamin Franklin]] believed in reincarnation or resurrection. Lord Herbert of Cherbury and [[William Wollaston]]<ref> {{cite book |last= Orr |title=(see above) }} p.137.</ref> held that souls exist, survive death, and in the afterlife are rewarded or punished by God for their behavior in life. [[Thomas Paine]] believed in the "probability" of the immortality of the soul.<ref> ''[[The Age of Reason|Age of Reason]]'', Pt I: {{blockquote| I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. }} and (in the Recapitulation) {{blockquote|I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body; and it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist hereafter than that I should have had existence, as I now have, before that existence began. }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page