Change in Religious Outlook -- Deism
mostly for the upper classes and intellectuals
Extension of European “Enlightenment”
"faith without a church”: informal, unorganized/decentralized
validated not by faith but by mathematics and scientific observation (influence of Newton)
God as "First Mover"; God created the universe but leaves it alone, and the evidence of God is is that the universe exists (self-evidence, q.v. in Declaration) but God is not in the universe, is not animating it further
An ordered universe implies need for ordered society ruled by "natural laws"
opposed to Theism (the all-pervasive God of the Puritans)
"progress" = humanity capable of moving toward continual improvement; blended w/ Christian sentiments and led to social improvement ideals (charity, prison reform; sympathies for natives, slaves, and the poor); eventually became synonymous with Westward e