The theocrats running the religious right in the US like to connect with millions of Americans by using the lie that America was founded as a Christian nation. They portray America's founders as Bible-believing Christians in spite of the fact that many of the key founders were not Christians, but were Deists. One of the most outspoken of these Deists was Thomas Paine.
In Paine's book on God, Deism and religion, The Age of Reason, he called for a revolution in religion based on our innate God-given reason and Deism. He wrote:
"Soon after I had published the pamphlet Common Sense, in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion. The adulterous connection of church and state, wherever it had taken place, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, had so
effectually prohibited by pains and penalties, every discussion upon established creeds, and upon first principles of religion, that until the system of government should be changed, those subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the world; but that whenever this should be done, a revolution in the system of religion would follow. Human inventions and priestcraft would be detected; and man would return to the pure, unmixed and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more."
Imagine what a much better world we would have today if the Deistic revolution in religion called for by Thomas Paine had happened. The literally billions of people today who are members of irrational, religious violence promoting man-made "revealed" religions would know that they have a true alternative to the "revealed" religions in reason-based Deism. They would know that God gave us reason, not religion. This would cause many, if not most, of them to stop their support of the man-made religions for their innate God-given reason. The religious right would not exist and religious violence would be virtually nonexistent.
Religion determines the beliefs of billions of people on our planet. A key reason why it's important to get the word out about Deism, to as many people as possible, is because our beliefs are so very important. The reason our beliefs are so important is because they determine our actions. And our actions are important because they determine what kind of life and world we have and what kind of world we are leaving for future generations.Deism is centered on our innate God-given reason. This enables Deists to break free of the ungodly, fear-based and cruel superstitions the man-made "revealed" religions are based upon. What this means for the individual Deist, to name just two out of many benefits, is that they are no longer a victim to the fear promoted by the "revealed" religions of God burning them in hell for eternity (the Bible says at Matthew 10:28 that Jesus said we should fear God because God can destroy our soul in hell). Deists are no longer susceptible to belief in, and acting upon, dangerous superstitions such as faith healing, which causes the very real deaths of the children of parents who accept this Biblical nonsense and lie.
Our innate God-given reason also tells us how very fortunate we are to be living, thinking and acting parts of our reason-based Universe. Unlike the "revealed"/hearsay religions which make the false claim that they know much about God because God has given their founders and clergy divine revelations, which, they falsely claim, are written in its "holy" scriptures, to teach the faithful about God and about God's desires for humanity, Deism teaches that the only way to know The Supreme Intelligence/God is by studying the laws and designs in Nature. All that the laws and designs in Nature tell us about The Supreme Intelligence/God, is that God exists. Albert Einstein did a great job of pointing this out when he wrote:
"I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations."
Deists replace the man-made "holy" scriptures with the only possible Word of God, the Universe and Creation itself. Thomas Paine expressed this vitally important fact when he wrote in The Age of Reason:
"I believe it is only in the CREATION that all our ideas and conceptions of a Word of God can unite. The Creation speaks a universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they may be. It is an ever existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this Word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God."
Think of what kind of world we will have once everyone on our planet Earth learns about Deism, and many of them leave the "revealed" religions for Deism. Children will no longer be victims of faith healing superstitions, God-given reason will free people of the religious superstition of belief in Satan and evil spirits which will save the lives of people who are currently being killed in exorcisms, people will no longer be killing each other about interpretations of allegedly "holy" scriptures, to name just a few of the positive changes Deism has the potential to make IF we take action to give Deism a chance.
