Editing Deism (section)

==== The origins of religion ====
A central premise of Deism was that the [[organized religion]]s of their day [[Criticism of religion|were corruptions of an original religion]] that was pure, natural, simple, and rational. Humanity lost this original religion when it was subsequently corrupted by [[priest]]s who manipulated it for personal gain and for the class interests of the priesthood,<ref>{{cite book
    | last=Champion
    | first=J.A.I.
    | title=The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken: The Church of England and its Enemies, 1660-1730
    | year=2014
    | publisher=Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)
}} Champion maintains that historical argument was a central component of the Deists' defences of what they considered true religion.</ref> and encrusted it with superstitions and "mysteries"&mdash;irrational theological doctrines. Deists referred to this manipulation of religious doctrine as "priestcraft", a derogatory term.<ref>{{cite book
    | last=  Paine
    | first= Thomas
    | title= The Age of Reason
| title-link= The Age of Reason
 }} "As priestcraft was always the enemy of knowledge, because priestcraft supports itself by keeping people in delusion and ignorance, it was consistent with its policy to make the acquisition of knowledge a real sin." (Part 2, p.129)</ref> For Deists, this corruption of [[natural religion]] was designed to keep laypeople baffled by "mysteries" and dependent on the priesthood for information about the [[Soteriology|requirements for salvation]]. This gave the priesthood a great deal of power, which the Deists believed the priesthood worked to maintain and increase. Deists saw it as their mission to strip away "priestcraft" and "mysteries". [[Matthew Tindal]], perhaps the most prominent Deist writer in [[early modern Europe]], claimed that this was the proper, original role of the [[Christian Church]].<ref>“It can't be imputed to any defect in the light of nature that the pagan world ran into idolatry, but to their being entirely governed by priests, who pretended communication with their gods, and to have thence their revelations, which they imposed on the credulous as divine oracles. Whereas the business of the Christian dispensation was to destroy all those traditional revelations, and restore, free from all idolatry, the true primitive and natural religion implanted in mankind from the creation.” ''Christianity as Old as the Creation'' (XIV), quoted in Waring ''(see above)'', p.163.</ref>

One implication of this premise was that [[Tribal societies|current-day primitive societies]], or [[Urgesellschaft|societies that existed in the distant past]], should have religious beliefs less infused with superstitions and closer to those of natural theology. This position became less and less plausible as [[Enlightenment philosophy|Enlightenment philosophers]] such as [[David Hume]] began studying the [[Four Dissertations#The Natural History of Religion|natural history of religion]] and suggested that the origin of religion was not in reason but in emotions, such as the fear of the unknown.