Western Civilization II / Unit 5 WC2 0420 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Mechanical Universe and Deism
Captions available
The idea
A universe describable in mathematics suggested a God who built the clock and let it run: deism, no intervention, no miracles after creation. At the time it did not undermine belief, the anchor says, though it contradicted passages of scripture.
In practice
The clockmaker God of the philosophes.
Where people slip
Deism is not atheism; unit 06 keeps them apart.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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