I echo pretty much everything my colleague Tommy Kidd wrote in his recent column What is Deism?, but I would add a footnote.
Perhaps the most important contribution the Deists made to religious thought was in terms of understanding the Bible, and in sparking the movement that became known as higher criticism. So much â??higherâ? was it in fact, at a very early date, as to challenge conventional assumptions about modern approaches to Biblical scholarship, and when they developed. This story also helps place Jeffersonâ??s â??Deismâ? in context.
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