Deism

====Miracles and divine providence====
The most natural position for Deists was to reject all forms of supernaturalism, including the miracle stories in the Bible. The problem was that the rejection of miracles also seemed to entail the rejection of [[divine providence]] (that is, God taking a hand in human affairs), something that many Deists were inclined to accept.<ref>Most American Deists, for example, firmly believed in divine providence. See this article, [[#Deism in the United States|Deism in the United States]].</ref> Those who believed in a watch-maker God rejected the possibility of miracles and divine providence. They believed that God, after establishing natural laws and setting the cosmos in motion, stepped away. He did not need to keep tinkering with his creation, and the suggestion that he did was insulting.<ref>See for instance {{cite book
    | last=  Paine
    | first= Thomas
    | title= The Age of Reason
| title-link= The Age of Reason
 }}, Part 1.</ref> Others, however, firmly believed in divine providence, and so, were reluctantly forced to accept at least the possibility of miracles. God was, after all, all-powerful and could do whatever he wanted including temporarily suspending his own natural laws.