LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Deism: New England
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Deism rejects the Old Testament entirely and accepts only those portions of the New Testament dealing with Jesus’ life and teachings. With regard to Holy Scripture, Deism accepts “The Jefferson Bible” as the most sane version of Western scripture yet edited. Everything Jefferson edited out is irrelevant to Science, Democracy and nascent Christianity.
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The effort to find this natural religion came to be known as Deism. The focus naturally was on ethics. Deism first appeared in England in the seventeenth century in response to the theological controversies that divided Christians during the sixteenth century. Deism must be distinguished from theism and atheism. Atheists were scornful of deists saying that were not weak enough to be Christians, and not strong enough to be atheists. The Deists believed themselves to be Christians.
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Anthony Collins (1676-1729), a close friend of Locke, did not contribute any new big ideas to Deism but his two main works served effectively to increase the intensity of the deistic debate with orthodoxy and incite replies. His Discourse of Free-Thinking (1713) was an argument for religious toleration and freethinking as the title implies. The first part of Free-Thinking constituted a summary of Locke's Letters on Toleration and the second part represents a list of free thinkers and their virtues.58 Sown through this work were many arguments against the reliability of the Bible59 and supernaturalistic Christianity60.
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