Deism

== Contemporary Deism<!--'Monodeism' redirects here--> ==
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2012}}

Contemporary Deism attempts to integrate classical Deism with modern philosophy and the current state of scientific knowledge. This attempt has produced a wide variety of personal beliefs under the broad classification of belief of "deism."

There are a number of subcategories of modern Deism, including '''monodeism'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> (the default, standard concept of deism), [[pandeism]], panendeism, spiritual deism, process deism, [[Christian deism]], [[polydeism]], scientific deism, and humanistic deism.<ref>José M. Lozano-Gotor, "Deism", ''[https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_1573 Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions]'' (Springer: 2013). "[Deism] takes different forms, for example, humanistic, scientific, Christian, spiritual deism, pandeism, and panendeism."</ref><ref>[[Mikhail Epstein]], ''Postatheism and the phenomenon of minimal religion in Russia'', in Justin Beaumont, ed., ''The Routledge Handbook of Postsecularity'' (2018), p. 83, n. 3: "I refer here to monodeism as the default standard concept of deism, distinct from polydeism, pandeism, and spiritual deism."</ref><ref>[http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/what-is-deism What Is Deism?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417043829/http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/what-is-deism |date=2016-04-17 }}, Douglas MacGowan, ''[[Mother Nature Network]]'', May 21, 2015: "Over time there have been other schools of thought formed under the umbrella of deism including [[Christian deism]], belief in deistic principles coupled with the moral teachings of [[Jesus of Nazareth]], and Pandeism, a belief that God became the entire universe and no longer exists as a separate being."</ref> Some deists see design in nature and purpose in the universe and in their lives. Others see God and the universe in a co-creative process. Some deists view God in classical terms as observing humanity but not directly intervening in our lives, while others see God as a subtle and persuasive spirit who created the world, and then stepped back to observe.

===Recent philosophical discussions of Deism===
In the 1960s, theologian [[Charles Hartshorne]] scrupulously examined and rejected both deism and [[pandeism]] (as well as [[pantheism]]) in favor of a conception of God whose characteristics included "absolute perfection in some respects, relative perfection in all others" or "AR," writing that this theory "is able consistently to embrace all that is positive in either deism or pandeism," concluding that "[[Panentheism|panentheistic]] doctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations."<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles|last=Hartshorne|title=Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism|year=1964|page=348|publisher=Archon Books |isbn=0-208-00498-X}}</ref>

[[Charles Taylor (philosopher)|Charles Taylor]], in his 2007 book ''[[A Secular Age]]'', showed the historical role of Deism, leading to what he calls an "exclusive humanism". This humanism invokes a moral order whose [[ontic]] commitment is wholly intra-human with no reference to transcendence.<ref>{{cite book
    | last=        Taylor
    | first=        C
    | year=        2007
    | title=         A Secular Age
    | location=  Cambridge, Massachusetts
    | publisher=Harvard University Press
  }}                  p.256.
</ref> One of the special achievements of such deism-based humanism is that it discloses new, [[anthropocentrism|anthropocentric]] moral sources by which human beings are motivated and empowered to accomplish acts of mutual benefit.<ref>{{cite book
    | last=Taylor
    | title=(see above)
}}           p.257.
</ref> This is the province of a buffered, disengaged self, which is the locus of dignity, freedom, and discipline, and is endowed with a sense of human capability.<ref>{{cite book
    | last=Taylor
    | title=(see above)
}}           p.262.
</ref> According to Taylor, by the early 19th century this Deism-mediated exclusive humanism developed as an alternative to Christian faith in a [[personal God]] and an order of miracles and mystery. Some critics of Deism have accused adherents of facilitating the rise of [[nihilism]].<ref>Essien, Anthonia M. "The sociological implications of the worldview of the Annang people: an advocacy for paradigm shift." Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 1.1 (2010): 29-35.</ref>

=== Deism in Nazi Germany ===
{{under discussion inline|talk=Nazism section removed}}
{{Main|Gottgläubig|Ideology of the Nazi Party|Religion in Nazi Germany}}
{{Further|Kirchenkampf|Reichskonkordat|Religious aspects of Nazism}}
[[File:PositiverGott.jpg|thumb|left|230px|''On positive German God-belief'' (1939)]]

In [[Nazi Germany]], ''[[Gottgläubig]]'' (literally: "believing in God")<ref name="Steigmann-Gall">{{Cite book |last=Steigmann-Gall |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Steigmann-Gall |year=2003 |chapter=''Gottgläubig'': Assent of the Anti-Christians? |chapter-url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/12631/1/NQ41317.pdf |url-status=live |title=The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945 |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=218–260 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511818103.009 |isbn=9780511818103 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428235847/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/12631/1/NQ41317.pdf |archive-date=28 April 2021 |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="Ziegler">{{Cite book |last=Ziegler |first=Herbert F. |date=2014 |title=Nazi Germany's New Aristocracy: The SS Leadership, 1925-1939 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBgABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 |url-status=live |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=85–87 |isbn=978-14-00-86036-4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510154611/https://books.google.com/books?id=kBgABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 |archive-date=10 May 2018 |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref> was a [[Religious aspects of Nazism|Nazi religious term]] for a form of [[non-denominationalism]] practised by those German citizens who had [[Apostasy in Christianity|officially left Christian churches]] but professed faith in some higher power or [[Creator deity|divine creator]].<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Such people were called ''Gottgläubige'' ("believers in God"), and the term for the overall movement was ''Gottgläubigkeit'' ("belief in God"); the term denotes someone who still believes in a God, although without having any [[Organized religion|institutional religious]] affiliation.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> These [[Nazi Party|National Socialists]] were not favourable towards religious institutions of their time, nor did they tolerate [[atheism]] of any type within their ranks.<ref name="Ziegler"/><ref name="Burleigh 2012">[[Michael Burleigh|Burleigh, Michael]]: [https://books.google.com/books?id=l5gcZpnL5QUC&dq=gottglaubig&pg=PA196 The Third Reich: A New History; 2012; pp.&nbsp;196–197] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527135625/https://books.google.com/books?id=l5gcZpnL5QUC&pg=PA196&dq=gottglaubig&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RVtlU-L_HNGe7AbJ64DoBg&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=gottglaubig&f=false |date=27 May 2016 }}</ref> The 1943 ''Philosophical Dictionary'' defined ''Gottgläubig'' as: "official designation for those who profess a specific kind of piety and morality, without being bound to a church denomination, whilst however also rejecting [[irreligion]] and [[Atheism|godlessness]]."<ref>{{Cite book |date=1943 |title=Philosophisches Wörterbuch Kröners Taschenausgabe. Volume 12 |page=206 |chapter=amtliche Bezeichnung für diejenigen, die sich zu einer artgemäßen Frömmigkeit und Sittlichkeit bekennen, ohne konfessionell-kirchlich gebunden zu sein, andererseits aber Religions- und Gottlosigkeit verwerfen}}. Cited in Cornelia Schmitz-Berning, 2007, p. 281 ff.</ref> The ''Gottgläubigkeit'' is considered a form of deism, and was "predominantly based on creationist and deistic views".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.pl/books?id=6XHOEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA1939&lpg=RA2-PA1939&dq=%22gottgl%C3%A4ubig%22+%22deist%22 |title=Adolf Hitler: A Biography |page=75 |first=Ileen |last=Bear |year=2016 |isbn=9789386019479 |publisher=Alpha Editions}}</ref>

In the 1920 [[National Socialist Programme]] of the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (NSDAP), [[Adolf Hitler]] first mentioned the phrase "[[Positive Christianity]]". The Nazi Party did not wish to tie itself to a particular [[Christian denomination]], but with Christianity in general, and sought [[freedom of religion]] for all denominations "so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the [[Germanic race]]." (point 24). When Hitler and the NSDAP got into power in 1933, they sought to assert state control over the churches, on the one hand through the ''[[Reichskonkordat]]'' with the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and the forced merger of the [[German Evangelical Church Confederation]] into the [[Protestant Reich Church]] on the other. This policy seems to have gone relatively well until late 1936, when a "gradual worsening of relations" between the Nazi Party and the churches saw the rise of ''Kirchenaustritt'' ("leaving the Church").<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Although there was no top-down official directive to revoke church membership, some Nazi Party members started doing so voluntarily and put other members under pressure to follow their example.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Those who left the churches were designated as ''Gottgläubige'' ("believers in God"), a term officially recognised by the Interior Minister [[Wilhelm Frick]] on 26 November 1936. He stressed that the term signified political disassociation from the churches, not an act of [[Apostasy in Christianity|religious apostasy]].<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> The term "dissident", which some church leavers had used up until then, was associated with being "without belief" (''glaubenslos''), whilst most of them emphasized that they still believed in a God, and thus required a different word.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/>

A census in May 1939, six years into the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi era]]<ref>Johnson, Eric (2000). ''Nazi terror: the Gestapo, Jews, and ordinary Germans'' New York: Basic Books, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gmuw9TvbFdUC&pg=PA10 p.&nbsp;10.]</ref> and after the annexation of the mostly Catholic [[Anschluss|Federal State of Austria]] and mostly Catholic [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia|German-occupied Czechoslovakia]]<ref>In 1930, Czechia had 8.3 million inhabitants: 78.5% Catholics, 10% Protestants (Hussites and Czech Brethren) and 7.8% irreligious or undeclared citizens. {{cite web|url=https://www.czso.cz/documents/10180/32846217/130055160118.xlsx/8da2b875-fd8c-4a7a-b697-4735cdeaf7f5?version=1.0|title=Population by religious belief and sex by 1921, 1930, 1950, 1991, 2001 and 2011 censuses 1)|language=cs, en|access-date=2 January 2017|publisher=Czech Statistical Office|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117194829/https://www.czso.cz/documents/10180/32846217/130055160118.xlsx/8da2b875-fd8c-4a7a-b697-4735cdeaf7f5?version=1.0|archive-date=17 January 2017}}</ref> into [[German-occupied Europe]], indicates{{sfn|Ericksen|Heschel|1999|p=10}} that 54% of the population considered itself Protestant, 41% considered itself Catholic, 3.5% self-identified as ''Gottgläubig'',<ref name="Evans546">[[Richard J. Evans]]; ''The Third Reich at War''; Penguin Press; New York 2009, p.&nbsp;546</ref><ref name="books.google.de">{{cite book |last=Lumans |first=Valdis O. |year=1993 |title=Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TIZSO31iSO4C&q=gottglaubig&pg=PA48 |location=[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]] |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=9780807820667 |page=48 |access-date=2023-05-17 |archive-date=2023-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417144005/https://books.google.com/books?id=TIZSO31iSO4C&q=gottglaubig&pg=PA48 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 1.5% as "atheist".<ref name="Evans546"/>

=== Deism in Turkey ===
{{Main|Irreligion in Turkey}}
{{Further|Secularism in Turkey}}
[[File:Atatürk Kemal.jpg|thumb|right|230px|[[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]], the [[founding father]] of the [[Republic of Turkey]], serving as its first [[President of Turkey|president]] from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressive [[Atatürk's Reforms|reforms]], which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation.<ref name="ÁgostonMasters2009">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Cuthell |first=David Cameron Jr. |year=2009 |editor1-last=Ágoston |editor1-first=Gábor |editor2-first=Bruce |editor2-last=Masters |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire |chapter=Atatürk, Kemal (Mustafa Kemal) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA56 |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Facts On File]] |pages=56–60 |isbn=978-0-8160-6259-1 |lccn=2008020716 |access-date=23 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Atatürk, Kemal |date=2014 |url=https://archive.org/details/worldencyclopedi00oxfo |encyclopedia=World Encyclopedia |publisher=Philip's |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199546091.001.0001 |isbn=9780199546091 |access-date=9 June 2019 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Books |first=Market House Books Market House |title=Atatürk, Kemal |date=2003 |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhointwentie00brig |work=Who's Who in the Twentieth Century |editor-last=Books |editor-first=Market House |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780192800916.001.0001 |isbn=9780192800916 |access-date=9 June 2019}}</ref>]]

An early April 2018 report of the [[Ministry of National Education (Turkey)|Turkish Ministry of Education]], titled ''The Youth is Sliding towards Deism'', observed that an increasing number of pupils in [[İmam Hatip school]]s was [[Apostasy in Islam|repudiating Islam]] in favour of Deism (irreligious belief in a [[Creator deity|creator God]]).<ref name="McKernan 2020">{{cite news |last=McKernan |first=Bethan |date=29 April 2020 |title=Turkish students increasingly resisting religion, study suggests |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/29/turkish-students-increasingly-resisting-religion-study-suggests |url-status=live |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=[[London]] |issn=1756-3224 |oclc=60623878 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122171105/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/29/turkish-students-increasingly-resisting-religion-study-suggests |archive-date=22 November 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="Sarfati 2019">{{cite magazine |last=Sarfati |first=Yusuf |date=15 April 2019 |title=State Monopolization of Religion and Declining Piety in Turkey |url=https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/state-monopolization-of-religion-and-declining-piety-in-turkey |url-status=live |magazine=Berkley Forum |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |publisher=[[Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs]] ([[Georgetown University]]) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516220605/https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/state-monopolization-of-religion-and-declining-piety-in-turkey |archive-date=16 May 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="Bekdil 2021">{{cite magazine |last=Bekdil |first=Burak |date=20 May 2021 |title=Turks May Be Rediscovering the Merits of the Secular Paradigm |url=https://besacenter.org/turks-may-be-rediscovering-the-merits-of-the-secular-paradigm/ |url-status=live |magazine=BESA Center Perspectives |publisher=[[Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies]] ([[Bar-Ilan University]]) |location=[[Tel Aviv]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718121849/https://besacenter.org/turks-may-be-rediscovering-the-merits-of-the-secular-paradigm/ |archive-date=18 July 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="Akyol 2020">{{cite magazine |last=Akyol |first=Mustafa |date=12 June 2020 |title=How Islamists are Ruining Islam |url=https://www.hudson.org/research/16131-how-islamists-are-ruining-islam |url-status=live |magazine=Current Trends in Islamist Ideology |publisher=[[Hudson Institute]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225174332/https://www.hudson.org/research/16131-how-islamists-are-ruining-islam |archive-date=25 December 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="MERIP 2018">{{cite magazine |last=Bilici |first=Mucahit |date=Fall 2018 |title=The Crisis of Religiosity in Turkish Islamism |url=https://merip.org/2018/12/the-crisis-of-religiosity-in-turkish-islamism/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[Middle East Report]] |publisher=[[Middle East Research and Information Project|MERIP]] |location=[[Tacoma, Washington]] |issue=288 |pages=43–45 |issn=0899-2851 |jstor=45198325 |oclc=615545050 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211013021037/https://merip.org/2018/12/the-crisis-of-religiosity-in-turkish-islamism/ |archive-date=13 October 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="Girit 2018">{{cite news |last=Girit |first=Selin |date=10 May 2018 |title=Losing their religion: The young Turks rejecting Islam |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43981745 |url-status=live |work=[[BBC News]] |location=[[London]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206105549/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43981745 |archive-date=6 December 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="Külsoy 2018">{{cite news |last=Külsoy |first=Ahmet |date=6 May 2018 |title=What is pushing half of Turkey towards Deism? |url=https://ahvalnews.com/islam/what-pushing-half-turkey-towards-deism |url-status=live |work=[[Ahval News]] |location=[[Cyprus]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109042354/https://ahvalnews.com/islam/what-pushing-half-turkey-towards-deism |archive-date=9 November 2020 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref> The report's publication generated large-scale controversy in the [[Mass media in Turkey|Turkish press]] and society at large, as well as amongst [[Conservatism in Turkey|conservative]] [[Islamic schools and branches|Islamic sects]], [[Ulama|Muslim clerics]], and [[Islamism|Islamist parties]] in [[Turkey]].<ref name="McKernan 2020"/><ref name="Sarfati 2019"/><ref name="Bekdil 2021"/><ref name="Akyol 2020"/><ref name="MERIP 2018"/><ref name="Girit 2018"/><ref name="Külsoy 2018"/>

The [[Liberalism and progressivism within Islam|progressive]] [[Islamic theology|Muslim theologian]] Mustafa Öztürk noted the Deistic trend among [[Turkish people]] a year earlier, arguing that the "very archaic, dogmatic notion of religion" held by the majority of those claiming to represent Islam was causing "the new generations [to get] indifferent, even distant, to the Islamic worldview." Despite lacking reliable statistical data, numerous anecdotes and independent surveys appear to point in this direction.<ref name="McKernan 2020"/><ref name="Sarfati 2019"/><ref name="Bekdil 2021"/><ref name="Akyol 2020"/><ref name="MERIP 2018"/><ref name="Girit 2018"/><ref name="Külsoy 2018"/> Although some commentators claim that the [[Secularism in Turkey|secularization of Turkey]] is merely a result of [[Westernization|Western influence]] or even an alleged "[[Conspiracy theories in Turkey|conspiracy]]", other commentators, even some pro-government ones, have come to the conclusion that "the real reason for the loss of faith in Islam is not the West but Turkey itself".<ref>{{cite news |last=Akyol |first=Mustafa |date=16 April 2018 |title=Why so many Turks are losing faith in Islam |url=https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/04/turkey-why-so-many-turks-are-losing-faith-in-islam.html |url-status=live |work=[[Al-Monitor]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815011838/https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2018/04/turkey-why-so-many-turks-are-losing-faith-in-islam.html |archive-date=15 August 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>

=== Deism in the United States ===
{{Main|Irreligion in the United States}}
Though Deism subsided in the United States post-Enlightenment, it never died out entirely.

[[Thomas Edison]], for example, was heavily influenced by [[Thomas Paine]]'s ''[[The Age of Reason]]''.<ref name="Israel">{{cite book|last=Israel|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Israel (historian)|title=Edison: A Life of Invention|year=2000|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-471-36270-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/edisonlifeofinve0000isra_l4c0 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Edison defended Paine's "scientific deism", saying, "He has been called an [[atheism|atheist]], but atheist he was not. Paine believed in a supreme intelligence, as representing the idea which other men often express by the name of deity."<ref name=Israel /> In 1878, Edison joined the [[Theosophical Society]] in New Jersey,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://tsmembers.org/|title=Theosophical Society Members 1875–1942 – Historical membership list of the Theosophical Society (Adyar) 1875–1942|website=tsmembers.org|access-date=October 8, 2018|archive-date=October 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009092813/https://tsmembers.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> but according to its founder, [[Helena Blavatsky]], he was not a very active member.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Collected Writings, Vol. XII|last=Blavatsky|first=Helena Petrovna|publisher=Theosophical Publishing House|year=1980|location=Wheaton, IL|pages=130}}</ref> In an October 2, 1910, interview in the ''[[New York Times Magazine]]'', Edison stated:
{{blockquote|
Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me—the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love—He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us—nature did it all—not the gods of the religions.<ref>{{cite news |title="No Immortality of the Soul" says Thomas A. Edison. In Fact, He Doesn't Believe There Is a Soul—Human Beings Only an Aggregate of Cells and the Brain Only a Wonderful Machine, Says Wizard of Electricity |quote=Thomas A. Edison in the following interview for the first time speaks to the public on the vital subjects of the human soul and immortality. It will be bound to be a most fascinating, an amazing statement, from one of the most notable and interesting men of the age&nbsp;... Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me—the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love—He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us—nature did it all—not the gods of the religions. |work=The New York Times |date=October 2, 1910}}</ref>
}}
Edison was labeled an atheist for those remarks, and although he did not allow himself to be drawn into the controversy publicly, he clarified himself in a private letter:
{{blockquote|You have misunderstood the whole article, because you jumped to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I call Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the article states is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made.<ref name=Israel />}}

He also stated, "I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt."<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=75ldAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+do+not+believe+in+the+God+of+the+theologians;+but+that+there+is+a+Supreme+Intelligence+I+do+not+doubt%22 The Freethinker] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619214033/https://books.google.com/books?id=75ldAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+do+not+believe+in+the+God+of+the+theologians;+but+that+there+is+a+Supreme+Intelligence+I+do+not+doubt%22&dq=%22I+do+not+believe+in+the+God+of+the+theologians;+but+that+there+is+a+Supreme+Intelligence+I+do+not+doubt |date=June 19, 2020 }}'' (1970), G.W. Foote & Company, Volume 90, p. 147</ref>

The 2001 [[American Religious Identification Survey]] (ARIS) report estimated that between 1990 and 2001 the number of self-identifying Deists grew from 6,000 to 49,000, representing about 0.02% of the [[Demographics of the United States#Religion|U.S. population]] at the time.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/files/2013/11/ARIS-2001-report-complete.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123080152/http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/files/2013/11/ARIS-2001-report-complete.pdf |archive-date=2015-11-23 |url-status=live |title=American Religious Identification Survey, 2001 |year=2001 |access-date=2019-09-18}}</ref> The 2008 ARIS survey found, based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification, that 70% of Americans believe in a [[personal God]]:<ref name="personal" group="lower-roman">The [[American Religious Identification Survey]] (ARIS) report notes that while "[n]o definition was offered of the terms, [they] are usually associated with a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ together with a certain view of salvation, scripture, and missionary work" (p. 11).</ref> roughly 12% are [[Atheism|atheists]] or [[Agnosticism|agnostics]], and 12% believe in "a deist or paganistic concept of the Divine as a higher power" rather than a personal God.<ref name="ARIS">{{cite web |url=http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/files/2011/08/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105073231/http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/files/2011/08/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf |archive-date=2012-01-05 |url-status=live |title=ARIS Summary Report, March 2009 |year=2009 |access-date=2017-03-18}}</ref>

The term "[[ceremonial deism]]" was coined in 1962 and has been used since 1984 by the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] to assess exemptions from the Establishment Clause of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] to the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]], thought to be expressions of cultural tradition and not earnest invocations of a deity. It has been noted that the term does not describe any school of thought within Deism itself.<ref>[[Martha Nussbaum]], [http://www.law.uchicago.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2008/undergod Under God: The Pledge, Present and Future] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807100105/http://www.law.uchicago.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2008/undergod |date=2017-08-07 }}</ref>