Spiritual Deism

The first four presidents—George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison—were deists. Historians generally agree that all four were religiously unorthodox when compared with traditional Trinitarian Christianity.

Thomas Jefferson is the clearest case. He rejected miracles, the Trinity, Christ’s divinity, and biblical revelation while retaining a belief in God and moral teachings.

John Adams was a Unitarian, which at that time could be characterized as **deistic Christianity**. He rejected the Trinity and Christ’s divinity but believed in God, morality, and providence.

James Madison is often classified as a deist, particularly because of his emphasis on natural religion and freedom of conscience. However, his private religious beliefs are less explicitly documented than Jefferson’s.

George Washington is the most disputed case. His refusal to take Communion, kneel during prayer in church, or be confirmed in the Anglican Church supports the deist interpretation. So does his preference for terms such as “Providence” and “the Supreme Being,” along with his avoidance of explicitly Christian language. Moreover, one of his pastors reportedly described him as a deist, which seems to provide particularly clear evidence.

An important lesson is that change is inevitable. You cannot stop it from coming, and you cannot stop things from leaving. Everything changes—this is a fact you must accept.

On the negative side, it means all good things come to an end. There are no exceptions. It is the truth of life. Good times are followed by bad times, as sunset follows sunrise.

One reason we suffer is that we cling to what is changing and fleeting. We try to hold on to the good and avoid the bad, and suffer as a result.

On the positive side, all bad things also come to an end. This too is inevitable. There are no exceptions. There is nothing in your life that will not eventually pass. Suffering will end—even if only at death. Things will change.

The key to contentment is non-attachment. Since everything changes, do not cling to anything or anyone. It is the path to freedom from suffering—an enduring truth, and the key to liberation.

There are actually only three possible options regarding the question or claim of God’s existence.

Once we define God as Ultimate Reality, the claim that “Ultimate Reality exists” results in only three possible choices.

We can accept the claim that Ultimate Reality exists, reject the claim that Ultimate Reality exists, or suspend judgment about the claim that Ultimate Reality exists.

The atheist rejects the claim that Ultimate Reality exists. The deist and theist accept the claim that Ultimate Reality exists, while the agnostic suspends judgment about it.

It has become popular for atheists to claim that they withhold belief in God due to a lack of evidence. But this position is not atheism; it is agnosticism. Their zeal against anyone who believes in God shows that they actually reject the claim that God exists. But they cannot defend that claim, so they redefine their position to avoid the glaring irrationality.

The reason for suffering is that we need resistance in order to build character. Without resistance, you cannot build muscle; without temptation, you cannot build character.

We must understand the importance of suffering. We must recognize that we cannot be brought into Ultimate Reality until we have fully matured. We must become like Ultimate Reality.

Consider the egg. If you help a chick break free and prevent it from struggling, you will kill the bird. It needs that struggle to develop the strength required to survive. We are no different.

Or consider the caterpillar. It forms a chrysalis, and within that confinement it becomes a butterfly. If you break the chrysalis and release it too soon, it will die. We are the same.

We do not like struggle. We do not like suffering or temptation. Yet these are necessary for the formation of character, and character determines destiny. We must become like God, like Ultimate Reality, and the only way to do so is through suffering.

One of the older problems in religion is the problem of suffering: If there is a good God, why is there so much suffering?

The first thing we must realize is that the world was not created for our comfort. The human world is not intended to be a paradise. It is to be an incubator for the growth of consciousness.

Instead of regarding humans as having been created by God in a finished state, it makes more sense to understand that humanity is still in the process of creation. We were not created perfect; we were created as a seed.

Think of proto‑consciousness as the raw material from which an evolved human consciousness arises. The point is for us to grow and become, more and more, like Ultimate Reality. This maturity cannot be accomplished by the Divine alone. It requires the uncoerced responses and willing cooperation of each human individual, through their actions and reactions in the world in which we have been placed.

We need to look at this from a developmental viewpoint. Humankind is a process of becoming the perfected being that the One is seeking to create. The world is not the best possible world; it is the only possible world.

Sins are selfish acts—things we do or say that place our interests above those of others. These are sins of commission: actions we knowingly take.

But there is another side to this: sins of omission. These are the things we refuse to do, even when duty calls, because they would require us to put others before ourselves.

Some sins of omission are simply the things we avoid because they inconvenience us. We recognize the duty, yet we neglect it.

This does not mean we should be at everyone’s beck and call. It means we must discern our duty—what we are truly obligated to do—and act accordingly. It is often harder to recognize sins of omission than sins of commission.

It is easy to see when we cross a line; it is harder to see when we fail to do what we should have done. One helpful question to ask is: What would Gotama do? What would Plotinus do? What would Socrates do? What would Yeshua do?