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Deism: Lord Herbert
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The founder of Deism was Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648). Deism flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and reached its zenith around the time of the American Revolution. This view was popular among European thinkers such as Voltaire as well as several founders of the United States including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
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Deism is a school of thought that rejects supernaturalism in religion and clings to natural religion. Its earliest exponent was Lord Herbert of Cherbury who maintained that religion should meet these tests:
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Deism emerged as a major religious and philosophical view in England. The most prominent 17th-century Deists were Edward Herbert, John Toland, and Charles Blount (1654–93), all of whom advocated a rationalist religion and criticized the supernatural or nonrational elements in the Jewish and Christian traditions. In the early 18th century, Anthony Collins (1676–1729), Thomas Chubb (1679–1746), and Matthew Tindal (c. 1655–1733) sharpened the rationalist attack on orthodoxy by attempting to discredit the miracles and mysteries of the Bible.
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Deism emerged as a major religious and philosophical view in England. The most prominent 17th-century Deists were Edward Herbert, John Toland, and Charles Blount, all of whom advocated a rationalist religion and criticized the supernatural or nonrational elements in the Jewish and Christian traditions. In the early 18th century, Anthony Collins, Thomas Chubb, and Matthew Tindal sharpened the rationalist attack on orthodoxy by attempting to discredit the miracles and mysteries of the Bible.
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There were several factors which contributed to the rapid decline of English Deism after Tindal's Old as the Creation. After a slow growth from Herbert to Toland and the flourishing of Deism from Toland to Tindal, there was a state of general exhaustion of ideas needed to fuel such a thought movement. There were no new ideas or approaches coming from deistic writers, only restatements of the same ideas. Division among the Deists and the mighty defense of learned orthodox opponents stalled the movement as well. Dodwell's and Hume's radical skepticism undermined Deism with free thinkers, and the public at large saw Deism as responsible for the rise of immorality. The spiritual awakening of the Wesley's together with a general preoccupation with political and military matters related to the Colonies and France ... helped begin the rapid decline and almost complete extinction of Deism in England.72
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The publication of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689, but dated 1690) marks a major turning point in the history of Deism. Since Herbert's De Veritate, innate ideas had been the foundation of Deist epistemology. Locke's famous attack on innate ideas in the first book of the Essay effectively destroyed that foundation and replaced it with a theory of knowledge based on experience. Innatist Deism was replaced by empiricist Deism.
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