The Church of Nature's God
Inspired by Nature, Based on Reason. The Journey, Not the Destination. 

Christians have their Bible. Muslims have the Koran. Mankind has Vedas and Upanishads, the I Ching, the Talmud. What book or books do Deists turn to for guidance and inspiration?

I have compiled a Deist Bible. It is unlike any other Bible you have seen. It is not a sacred text, it is a framework. It is not rigid, unchanging dogma. It is flowing and dynamic. Over time, it should become your Bible, unique to you. Only you can decide what is in it!

Deism has no sacred texts. Deism is not a revealed religion that requires that someone write down the word of God so that others might worship those words in some precisely prescribed fashion. The Church thinks the messages we need are found in Nature. We need only look. It does not seem reasonable that God would communicate with mere human words. Which language would he use anyway?

Probably no two Deists could agree on exactly which writings are the best ones, let alone the right ones, to express the Deist belief system. The Church of Nature's God does not propose that the study of the Creator be limited to any set body of work.

Deists are individualists. Deists and many Freethinkers are ruled by reason. Reason dictates that we should keep acquiring knowledge, that truth is something that we build for ourselves, not something that is handed to us for free. Deism is a methodology for finding God with no dogma to tells us how and what to think. Advances in science suggest that, since our ignorance of the universe is decreasing as we learn new things, our beliefs and our concept of the truth are ever-changing. Our knowledge improves as we learn from more resources. We should never stop questioning and testing our beliefs about God and nature and the universe. If we ever stop wondering, we have probably stopped reasoning.

The most that the Church can do is persuade, through reason, that an argument against or in favor of one practice or belief is more compelling than another.

I have completed my modernization of Ethan Allen's Reason: The Only Oracle of Man from 18h Century English to 21st Century English. Steve Dowell's Modernized Age of Reason is found at Positive Deism. Works by Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, Matthew Tindal and John Toland are found at the Panendeism.org site at lower left on the Deism page. Elihu Palmer's Principles of Nature can be found at Deism.com. These are not sacred texts, but they are important for learning the foundations of Deism.

Meanwhile, many Deist forums provide access to writings of interest to those of us who wish to examine Deism, Reason and Nature more closely. Try some of these links:

http://deistalliance.org/
http://deist.info/
http://www.moderndeism.com/index.html
http://panendeism.org/default.aspx
http://positivedeism.com/
http://www.sullivan-county.com/deism.htm
http://www.thomaspaine.org/Thomas%20Paine.htm

As I find time, I will add observations of various religions and philosophies here. Contributions are gratefully accepted. There is a world of human learning and writing about God out there just waiting to be tapped. It is up to us to decide how much of it is reasonable.