I was wondering recently what the symbol of Deism would be.  For my web site I chose a sun burst. It is a light, which represents truth, which is key to Deism.  The sun burst is probably the oldest known religious symbol.

But, what is the general symbol of deism?  In Freemasonry, the All Seeing Eye symbolizes God.  I thought about using that as a deistic symbol for this forum, but it’s actually kind of creepy when you stop to look at it, so I chose to not use that.

A traditional sunburst is a plus sign inside a circle.  It’s nice and mathematical looking, but not really inspiring. Classic Deism is very reason based, but reason doesn’t inspire most people.  We aren’t Vulncans.  Reason just keeps us from being too irrational.

I considered using a rose for a symbol because it represents love.  But roses aren’t easy to draw, and I wanted my symbol to be easy to draw.

One of the things I like about the Christian cross is its simplicity.  Two lines joined higher than the center.  Constantine, the old sun worshiper, did well to choose this variation of a sun burst. A lot of Christians mistakenly believe the cross is a symbol of the device that their Yeshua was crucified on.  Assuming that there was such a person, he most likely would have been crucified on a single pole.  If Yeshua were crucified on a crucifix with a cross beam it would most likely have been attached at the top of the pole, not part way down.  It would be more stable attached to the top than the front.  The true crucifix was most likely a simple pole, or if not that it would have been shaped like a capital T. A single pole doesn’t have the same visual appeal as the sunburst, so they have Yeshua being crucified on a sunburst for marketing purposes.  The sunburst has better visual appeal.

What would the symbol of Deism really be?  I don’t believe there is, or perhaps should be, a single symbol. Deism is about freedom of belief.  Deists don’t generally believe in forcing all Deists to conform to a common set of ideas or cultural memes.  Deism is more of a category of similar personal beliefs than a common doctrine.  This means that the personal symbol of Deism is just that, personal, like a mandala.  What I would choose as a religious symbol isn’t necessarily the same symbol another Deist would use.

Perhaps another Deist would use an infinity symbol.  Another might use one of those ribbon care symbols you always see as bumper stickers. I like the sunburst, because it represents truth and the symbol itself appeals to something deep in all of us.

I give permission to anyone else to copy, reproduce and use the sunburst symbol I use on this web site if they want use it as a symbol of Deism.

UPDATE, September 11, 2009:  After a lot of searching and trial-and-error, the best symbol I’ve found for Deism can be found here.

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