Strictly speaking, classic deism is a form of atheism.  Atheism means apart from the theist idea of God, so classic deism would be a form of atheism.   Strictly speaking that is.

Today we include rational theism in deism.  Rational theism is way of looking at the universe with the understanding that God intervenes in human affairs, but that God doesn’t communicate to us through oracles.

Today, in a practical sense atheism as actually antideism, because it tends to be not just neutral to the idea of God, but actually argues to the contrary.  And it is not just contrary to the theist idea of God, but contrary to any understanding of God at all.

The common factor I see of real atheism and real deism is the focus on naturalism.   The difference between the two is that atheism denies one of the most important aspects of human nature, which is our inherent and natural tendency to be spiritual and religious, while deism recognizes the importance of spirituality and religion, not just to being fully human, but in having a civil society.

I’ve been reading about the ideas behind the American and French revolution.  The American revolution went pretty well.  The French revolution was a mess.  Both revolutions were based on naturalism.   The difference between the two seems to be that the French did not value theism the way the Americans did.

The American revolution valued “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”  This is a shortened form of “the Laws of Nature and [the Laws of] Nature’s God.”  The “the Laws of Nature” means natural law, which is the law the naturally occurs between people that doesn’t require divine revelation; in a word reasonableness.  “[the Laws of] Nature’s God” means the laws of revelation, so “Nature’s God” in this context is the theist God, specifically the Christian God.  The American founders understood the value of reason, but they also understood that reason had to be moderated and held in check by civil traditions.  The French apparently didn’t get this.  So they had a very violent and ugly revolution.  Perhaps they still have problems with statism today because they started off on the wrong foot.

Religiously held traditions are essential to a civil society, so the Church is essential to civil society.  Atheism brings harm society, and we see that in the disfunction of  socialist states like the USSR and Communist China that dropped their traditional religious foundations in favor of atheist reasonist ideologies.

Deism acts as a moderator between various religious sects, by preventing any church from becoming dominant and overcontrolling; while at the same time, the naturalism of Deism holds society to a standard of natural truths.

Deism is essential to a free and civil society.  Atheism will lead to tyranny.  (Ya, ya, ya.  I know there are some exceptions to this rule.)  A free society must tolerate atheism, but it must never allow atheism to become its creed.

Stumble it!