Deism

===Deism in France and continental Europe===
[[File:D'après Nicolas de Largillière, portrait de Voltaire (Institut et Musée Voltaire) -001.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Voltaire]] at age 24, portrayed by [[Nicolas de Largillière]]]]

France had its own tradition of [[religious skepticism]] and natural theology in the works of [[Michel de Montaigne|Montaigne]], [[Pierre Bayle]], and [[Montesquieu]]. The most famous of the French Deists was [[Voltaire]], who was exposed to Newtonian science and English Deism during his two-year period of exile in England (1726–1728). When he returned to France, he brought both back with him, and exposed the French reading public (i.e., the aristocracy) to them, in a number of books.

French Deists also included [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]]. During the [[French Revolution]] (1789–1799), the Deistic [[Cult of the Supreme Being]]&mdash;a direct expression of Robespierre's theological views&mdash;was established briefly (just under three months) as the new state religion of France, [[Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution|replacing the deposed Catholic Church]] and the rival atheistic [[Cult of Reason]].

There were over five hundred French Revolutionaries who were deists. These deists do not fit the stereotype of deists because they believed in miracles and often prayed to God. In fact, over seventy of them thought that God miraculously helped the French Revolution win victories over their enemies. Furthermore, over a hundred French Revolutionary deists also wrote prayers and hymns to God. Citizen Devillere was one of the many French Revolutionary deists who believed God did miracles. Devillere said, "God, who conducts our destiny, deigned to concern himself with our dangers. He commanded the spirit of victory to direct the hand of the faithful French, and in a few hours the aristocrats received the attack which we prepared, the wicked ones were destroyed and liberty was avenged."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Devillere |first=Citizen |title=Archives parlementaires de la révolution français |publisher=Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |year=1987 |pages=361–362}}</ref>

Deism in Germany is not well documented. We know from correspondence with Voltaire that [[Frederick the Great]] was a Deist. [[Immanuel Kant]]'s identification with Deism is controversial.<ref>Allen Wood argues that Kant was Deist. See "Kant's Deism" in P. Rossi and M. Wreen (eds.), ''Kant's Philosophy of Religion Reconsidered'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991). An argument against Kant as deist is Stephen Palmquist's "Kant's Theistic Solution". http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/srp/arts/KTS.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050722081614/http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/srp/arts/KTS.html |date=2005-07-22 }}</ref>