List of deists

This is a partial list of people who have been categorized as Deists, the belief in a deity based on natural religion only, or belief in religious truths discovered by people through a process of reasoning, independent of any revelation through scriptures or prophets. They have been selected for their influence on Deism or for their notability in other areas.

Born before 1700

Al-Maʿarri (973–1058), was a blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer, and a controversial rationalist.<ref>Freethought Traditions in the Islamic World Template:Webarchive by Fred Whitehead; also quoted in Cyril Glasse, (2001), The New Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 278. Rowman Altamira.</ref>
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. Described as a deist by some sources,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> most historians have deemed him a Roman Catholic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648), British soldier, diplomat, historian, poet and religious philosopher<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), German mathematician and philosopher. He is best known for developing infinitesimal calculus independently of Isaac Newton, and his mathematical notation has been widely used ever since it was published. He has also been labeled a Christian as well.<ref>"In a commentary on Shaftesbury published in 1720, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a Rationalist philosopher and mathematician, accepted the Deist conception of God as an intelligent Creator but refused the contention that a god who metes out punishments is evil." Andreas Sofroniou, Moral Philosophy, from Hippocrates to the 21st Aeon, page 197.</ref><ref>"Consistent with the liberal views of the Enlightenment, Leibniz was an optimist with respect to human reasoning and scientific progress (Popper 1963, p.69). Although he was a great reader and admirer of Spinoza, Leibniz, being a confirmed deist, rejected emphatically Spinoza's pantheism: God and nature, for Leibniz, were not simply two different "labels" for the same "thing". Shelby D. Hunt, Controversy in marketing theory: for reason, realism, truth, and objectivity (2003), page 33.</ref>
Matthew Tindal (1657–1733), controversial English author whose works were influential on Enlightenment thinking<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Voltaire (1694–1778), French Enlightenment writer and philosopher<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
William Hogarth (1697–1764), English painter, visual artist and pioneering cartoonist<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746), Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. The Maclaurin series, a special case of the Taylor series, are named after him.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Born 1700–1800

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), American polymath; one of the Founding Fathers of the United States<ref>The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin from earlyamerica.com</ref>
Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749), French mathematician, physicist, and author during the Age of Enlightenment. Her crowning achievement is considered to be her translation and commentary on Isaac Newton's work Principia Mathematica.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet and influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783), French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie.<ref>"The dividing line between Deism and atheism among the Philosophes was often rather blurred, as is evidenced by Le Rêve de d'Alembert (written 1769; "The Dream of d'Alembert"), which describes a discussion between the two "fathers" of the Encyclopédie: the Deist Jean Le Rond d'Alembert and the atheist Diderot." Andreas Sofroniou, Moral Philosophy, from Hippocrates to the 21st Aeon, page 197.</ref>
Adam Smith (1723–1790), Scottish philosopher and economist; considered the father of modern economics<ref>The Times obituary of Adam Smith</ref>
James Hutton (1726–1797), Scottish physician, geologist, naturalist, chemical manufacturer and experimental agriculturalist. His work helped to establish the basis of modern geology. His theories of geology and geologic time, also called deep time, came to be included in theories which were called plutonism and uniformitarianism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1796), German philosopher influential in the Jewish Haskalah<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
George Washington (1732–1799), American soldier, statesman, and Founding Father, who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
James Watt (1736–1819), Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Thomas Paine (1737–1809), English pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, inventor, and intellectual, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ethan Allen (1738–89), early American revolutionary and guerrilla leader<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), author of the Jefferson Bible, an American Founding Father, the principal author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Michael Corbett and Julia Mitchell Corbett, Politics and religion in the United States (1999) p. 68</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), French naturalist. He was a soldier, biologist, academic, and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Johann Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830), Bavarian philosopher, canon law professor and founder of the Illuminati<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
James Madison (1751–1836), "Father of the United States Constitution", one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and the 4th President of the United States<ref name="vqr">Template:Cite web</ref>
James Monroe (1758–1831), Founding Father of the United States and fifth president of the United States; held various other roles in the government of the United States. Monroe almost never discussed religion but used Deist language in speeches and was a Freemason, who were largely Deists at the time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794), French revolutionary and lawyer<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Elihu Palmer (1764–1806), American author and advocate of deism<ref>Elihu Palmer – First Presbyterian Church of Newtown Template:Webarchive</ref>
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), German mathematician and physical scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Humphry Davy (1778–1829), British chemist and inventor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Charles Lyell (1797–1875), British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Born 1800–1900

Victor Hugo (1802–1885), French writer, artist, activist and statesman<ref name="adherents1">Template:Cite web</ref>
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879), American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Lysander Spooner (1808–1887), American anarchist, philosopher and abolitionist<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Henrik Wergeland (1808–1845), Norwegian poet and theologist (by self-definition).
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), sixteenth president of the United States. He never joined any church and has been described as a "Christian deist". As a young man, he was religiously skeptical and sometimes ridiculed revivalists. During his early years, Lincoln enjoyed reading the works of deists such as Thomas Paine and Voltaire. He drafted a pamphlet incorporating such ideas but did not publish it. After charges of hostility to Christianity almost cost him a congressional bid, he kept his unorthodox beliefs private. James Adams labelled Lincoln as a deist. In 1834, Lincoln reportedly wrote a manuscript essay challenging Christianity modelled on Paine's book The Age of Reason, which a friend supposedly burned to protect him from ridicule. He seemed to believe in an all-powerful God, who shaped events and, by 1865, was expressing those beliefs in major speeches.Template:Citation needed
Jules Verne (1828–1905), French author who pioneered the science fiction genre in Europe. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907), Russian chemist and inventor. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Simon Newcomb (1835–1909), Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Mark Twain (1835–1910), American author and humorist<ref name="adherents1"/>
Alfred M. Mayer (1836–1897), American physicist.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. Today he is appreciated largely for his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, and for his founding of pragmatism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906), Austrian physicist famous for his founding contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931), American inventor and businessman.<ref>In a correspondence on the matter Edison said: "You have misunderstood the whole article, because you jumped to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I call Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the article states is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made." New York Times. 2 October 1910, Sunday.</ref>
Max Planck (1858–1947), German physicist, regarded as the founder of quantum theory.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
José Rizal (1861–1896), a Filipino patriot, philosopher, medical doctor, poet, journalist, novelist, political scientist, painter and polyglot. Considered to be one of the Philippines' most important heroes and martyrs whose writings and execution contributed to the igniting of the Philippine Revolution. He is also considered as Asia's first modern non-violent proponent of freedom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937), New Zealand chemist and "father" of nuclear physics, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Max Born (1882–1970), German-British physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s. Born won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics (shared with Walther Bothe).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Hermann Weyl (1885–1955), German mathematician and theoretical physicist.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Born after 1900

Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958), Austrian theoretical physicist. In 1945, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is best known for his work on Pauli principle and spin theory.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Luis Walter Alvarez (1911–1988), American experimental physicist and inventor, who spent nearly all of his long professional career on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968, and took out over 40 patents, some of which led to commercial products.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Martin Gardner (1914–2010), American popular mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature (especially the writings of Lewis Carroll and G. K. Chesterton), philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion.<ref>Carpenter, Alexander (2008), "Martin Gardner on Philosophical Theism, Adventists and Price" Interview, 17 October 2008, Spectrum.</ref>
Antony Flew (1923–2010), British analytic philosopher and prominent former atheist; during his last years he openly made an allegiance to Deism<ref name="Flew">Template:Cite news</ref> and stated to have acknowledged the existence of an Intelligent Creator of the universe, the Aristotelian God.<ref name="Flew"/>
Walter Kohn (1923–2016), Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Harish-Chandra (1923–1983), Indian mathematician, who did fundamental work in representation theory, especially Harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012), American NASA astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
James Heckman (born 1944), American economist who shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000 for his pioneering work in econometrics and microeconomics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Rodrigo Duterte (born 1945), 16th President of the Philippines.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ho">Template:Cite news</ref>
Paul Davies (born 1946), British physicist and science writer and broadcaster<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Nick Cave (born 1957), Australian musician, songwriter, poet, author and actor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Brett Gurewitz (born 1962), guitarist and songwriter for the American punk rock band Bad Religion<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Tammy Duckworth (born 1968), United States Senator for Illinois, member of United States House of Representatives, Army National Guard lieutenant colonel<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Harmony Korine (born 1973), American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Rosalia (Born 1992) Spanish singer.

References

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Born before 1700

Born 1700–1800

Born 1800–1900

Born after 1900

See also

References