Thiessen, in
commenting on the rise and history of Deism, states:
English Deism arose as a result of nearly two centuries of controversy about
religious questions. The Copernican discoveries and the work of Francis Bacon
also contributed somewhat to its rise. Lord Herbert, of Cherbury (1581-1648),
is known as the father of deism. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Charles Blound
(1654-1693), Anthony Collins (1676-1729), Matthew Tindal (1657-1733), Lord
Bolingbroke (1678-1751), and Thomas Paine (1727-1809) were English deists. In
France the deistic movement did not get under way until a century after its
rise in England. Voltaire (1694-1778) and Rousseau (1712-1778) may be classed
as French deists. Some modern evolutionary theories are deistic in their
explanation of the universe.5
5 Henry
C. Thiessen, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1951),p. 75.
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